William Penn Forces GVU into Fourth Set Before Succumbing to Defeat
Des Moines–Just as it did a month ago, the Statesmen women’s volleyball team took a set against its rival, but could not finish the deed in a 3-1 loss to Grand View in Heart of America Athletic Conference action Tuesday.
WPU (11-15, 2-10 Heart), which fell by scores of 23-25, 18-25, 25-17, 16-25, was only outhit .265-.205.
The visitors led several times in a back-and-forth first set. Unfortunately, up 22-21, the navy and gold gave up three consecutive points and could not recover.
The second set was all Grand View (12-10, 7-5 Heart) from the start as the hosts pulled out to a 2-0 edge.
WPU overcame a 3-1 deficit in the third round by scoring 10 of the next 12 points. The Statesmen did not look back from there, fighting off a rally by the Vikings who closed the lead to two at 16-14. The visiting crew responded with a 7-1 run to extend the match.
William Penn failed to replicate that performance in the fourth set, though, as it was swept by GVU in the season series with identical 3-1 match scores.
Maju Vieira (Sr., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Business Management) was the lone Statesmen in double figures as she notched 13 kills. Alix Robinson (So., Pontiac, Ill., Political Science and History) managed eight winners, while Abigail Mitchell (Sr., Oxford, Ala., Nursing) had seven. The duo of Emilie Bojorquez-McFadden (Sr., Surprise, Ariz., Biology) and Hailee Pesek (Sr., New Hampton, Iowa, Nursing) contributed five kills each as well.
Leah Meyer (Fr., Houston, Texas, Business Management) tallied 18 assists, while Courtney McWilliams (So., Rockton, Ill., Nursing) posted 15. Maddy Gustafson (Jr., Marion, Iowa, Psychology and Human Services) led the way defensively with 15 digs, while Robinson was WPU’s best net defender with five blocks. Bojorquez-McFadden stopped four GVU attempts as well.
William Penn lost the aces battle 7-3 and the blocks category 8-6.
“We had some good moments, but also some not-so-good moments,” Head Coach Lauren Eldridge said. “We were able to stay hot in the third set to force a fourth, but unfortunately, we were just too inconsistent defensively, especially in our service reception, to counter what they did. We looked better offensively than we have recently, but we are still missing putting it together consistently from start to finish.”
Next Up: William Penn travels to Marshall, Mo. Friday to face Missouri Valley in Heart play at 5 p.m.
