Lady Statesmen Nearly Knock Off #12 Grand View
William Penn Women’s Athletics
Oskaloosa–The William Penn volleyball team pushed the #12 team in the NAIA to the brink Tuesday night, but could not slam the door shut in falling 3-2 to Grand View in Midwest Collegiate Conference action.
The Lady Statesmen (20-9, 1-2 MCC) lost by scores of 23-25, 25-23, 25-22, 21-25, 5-15. The home team, who was the first MCC squad to win a set against Grand View this fall, was outhit .226-.182.
Both teams hit well in the opening set, .293-.213 in favor of GVU. William Penn trailed for the opening part, but led once at 13-12 before the Vikings (21-4, 4-0 MCC) scored three straight points and never trailed again.
The Lady Statesmen evened things up by pulling out to a seven-point advantage (16-9) in set #2. The visitors clawed back to lead 21-19, but six of the last eight points went to the navy and gold.
Having claimed the momentum, William Penn held it for one more set, leading wire-to-wire in set three to go ahead 2-1.
Despite posting a match-best .250 clip in the fourth set, the Lady Statesmen could not prevent the Vikings from evening the score with a wire-to-wire win of their own.
That set up a decisive fifth set, which started with the teams exchanging solid jabs as they were tied 4-4. It unfortunately all went south from there, however, with Grand View scoring three in a row and ten of the last 11 for the win.
Lacey Taylor (Sr., Cedar, Iowa, Elementary Education) was one of four players to reach double figures in kills. She topped the group with 17 winners, while Katie Rielly (Sr., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Digital Communications) had 16. Jeanette Cunningham (Jr., Mt. Orab, Ohio, Elementary Education) had 12 and Kylie Giger (Fr., Elkhart, Ind., Undecided) contributed 11.
Dayna Sammons (So., Menomonee Falls, Wis., Software Engineering) concluded the evening with 47 assists in addition to 28 digs. Giger and Taylor served up two aces, while Cunningham was a part of five blocks (one solo, four assists).
“I loved the intensity and fire that our team came out with tonight,” Head Coach Jeremy Wise said. “When we do that, we can play with anyone in the country. Volleyball is a funny game; we were so close to a sweep, then just like that it turned into a heart-breaking five-set loss. We executed very well the first three sets, then for some reason started the fourth set with a few missed serves and bad passes that changed the flow of the game.”
“Unfortunately, volleyball is a game of momentum and we just lost it late in the match and let it affect us too much,” Wise added. “We had a golden opportunity to beat the pre-season favorite and top-ranked team in the conference on our home court. However, I look for the ladies to bounce back strong tomorrow night against Grinnell.”
Next: William Penn stays home Wednesday night to host Grinnell in non-conference action at 7:30 p.m. The game will serve as Breast Cancer Awareness/Dig Pink Night. All fans are encouraged to wear pink to support breast cancer awareness.
