Statesmen Lose in Five to Mustangs
Oskaloosa — William Penn men’s volleyball returned home to take on Mount Mercy Tuesday night. Being the season opener for Mount Mercy, the Statesmen did not know what they would see out of the Mustangs, but both teams provided quality play all night long. Mount Mercy took the first two sets and the Statesmen captured sets three and four. Despite the comeback effort, William Penn could not carry that momentum into the fifth, taking the loss in the match 3-2, with scores of 25-21, 25-22, 25-18 (WPU), 26-24 (WPU), and 15-9. The team drops to 4-4 overall and 3-4 in Heart of America Athletic Conference competition.
The navy and gold led 2-0 early, as Eli Herro (So., Dousman, Wis., Business Management) and Ike Papes (So., Elwood, Ill, Business Management) both put down kills. Mount Mercy then found their way to two-straight points and the game see-sawed from there. Tied at 5-5, the Mustangs then put up seven in a row to take a commanding 12-5 edge.
CJ Rettig (So., Sierra Madre, Calif., Physical Education) and Charlie Figy (Fr., Appleton, Wis., Sports Management) each got a kill over the next few rallies, which helped to right the ship. WPU took a 14-7 deficit and turned it into a slim 16-14 lead for the visitors. Unfortunately, the team went a bit cold from there, as the Mustangs rolled off a 5-2 run. Up 21-16, the Mustangs closed out set one with a 25-21 score. WPU hit .036 in the frame, with nine kills and eight errors.
Set two saw the Mustangs take a 2-0 lead but the Statesmen found a way to tie the game at 3-3. Another brief run saw Mount Mercy go up by three, but once more, the gap was closed up, as the Statesmen tied the score at 7-7. The Mustangs got another lead at 10-7 and pushed it out to 15-9. WPU took a timeout but it only halted the momentum for a moment.
MMU took a 19-13 lead but the Statesmen played them close in the final phases of the set, outscoring the Mustangs 7-5. However, it was too little too late and Mount Mercy took the set 25-22. William Penn hit .212 in the second, with 13 kills and six errors.
The navy and gold decided they would not let set three slip through their fingers, and took control early. With kills from Papes and Torres, the team went up 5-3. Torres then set down back-to-back aces to make it 7-3. The team went up 10-5 on a kill by Torres but the Mustangs then jumped back into the contest, cutting the lead to 12-10.
But William Penn tenaciously fought back, going on a 8-3 run to push their lead to 20-13. Herro collected an ace in the run while Figy and Papes each added to their kill tally for the night. The team closed the door on the Mustangs, taking the set 25-18. WPU hit .348, with 12 kills and four errors, while holding the visitors to a .000 hitting percentage.
Set four seemed to swing back to the Mustangs. With the teams bouncing points back and forth, the Mustangs took a slim lead at 6-5. They kept an inch ahead of WPU, going up 10-8 then 12-10 before the Statesmen knotted things at 12-12. William Penn then put the pedal down, going on a 4-2 run but MMU would tie the game at 16-16.
The home side then hit another cold snap, as Mount Mercy climbed out to a 24-18 lead. Doom was impending, but the team had some heroics left in the tank. They took advantage of some errors, some monstrous kills from Papes, and kills from Figy and Torres to thwart the Mustangs, who did not score again in the set. William Penn, with eight-unanswered, won set four 26-24, hitting at a .364 clip, with 16 kills and four errors.
The fans in the building were loud as the fifth and final set got underway. Despite the home-court advantage, Mount Mercy stepped up to the plate successfully in the deciding frame. They went up 3-0 before an error made it 3-1. But MMU would not trail in the final set. The Statesmen got close at 6-5, but the team could not tie the game nor take the lead. The visitors finished the match on a 10-4 run to take the series three sets to two.
William Penn hit .216 on the night, recording 54 kills, 47 digs, six aces, and one solo block. Papes tied not only his personal high for kills, but coincidentally, the school record as well, with 27 kills, as he looked unstoppable in sets three and four. Torres was next with 10 kills while Figy had eight and Herro six. Connor Muff (Jr., Kenosha, Wis., Business Management) distributed the ball at a high level all night, racking up 46 assists and one kill. Torres led the team with nine digs while Papes had eight. Carlos Garcia (So., Laredo, Texas, Biology) had some great digs, coming away with seven on the night while Herro and Luke Scheuble (So., Hemet, Calif., Wellness & Recreation) had six.
“What a tough loss for the guys,” said Head Coach Luke Bentley. “I really feel for them after coming back in the third and fourth sets, but we are so pleased with their grit and resilience. Lots of positives to take away still.”
Next Up: The team will welcome top-ranked Grand View on Thursday, February 11, at 5 p.m.
