William Penn Sweeps Grinnell
The Lady Statesmen were in action against Grinnell
Oskaloosa–One night after nearly pulling off a massive upset over Grand View, the Lady Statesmen spikers disposed of non-conference foe Grinnell in straight sets.
William Penn (21-9) won by scores of 25-17, 29-27, 25-13. The hosts nearly doubled up the Pioneers (4-19) in hitting, .269-.143.
It was not as easy as the scores may show. The visitors actually led 10-9 out of the gate, but headlined by four aces in five points by Lacey Taylor (Sr., Cedar, Iowa, Elementary Education), the navy and gold finally got things moving and took the 1-0 advantage. The senior finished the night with five of her team’s ten aces.
William Penn pulled out to a solid 14-8 lead in set #2, only to watch Grinnell battle back. The squads were tied numerous times late before the Lady Statesmen finally claimed the final two points to take the commanding 2-0 lead.
In comparison to the first two sets, the finale was a walk in the park with Head Coach Jeremy Wise unloading his bench a bit.
Taylor guided the offense as the only player in double figures with ten kills. Jeanette Cunningham (Jr., Mt. Orab, Ohio, Elementary Education) added nine winners, while Katie Rielly (Sr., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Digital Communications) finished with eight and Kylie Giger (Fr., Elkhart, Ind., Undecided) tallied seven.
Dayna Sammons (So., Menomonee Falls, Wis., Software Engineering) managed 30 assists and two aces, while Giger tacked on three more aces to the cause. Taylor dug ten attacks, and Rielly recorded one solo block and two block assists.
“We went out and won in three sets which was our goal,” Wise said. “After a tough, hard-fought five-set loss the night before, we wanted to show we could bounce right back and head into Fall Break on a good winning note. I knew there would be a little hangover from last night, and the first two sets showed that as we let them go a little longer than we could have.”
“We fortunately closed out those games by making big plays late,” Wise added. “We then got our intensity back and our feet under us and cruised through the third game. We were able to utilize some of our bench and role players who did a great job stepping in and keeping things rolling. Hopefully the long weekend will give us time to heal up, get over some sicknesses, and start refreshed next week.”
Next: William Penn is off this weekend, returning to action next Tuesday as it travels to Dubuque to face Clarke in Midwest Collegiate Conference action at 7:30 p.m.
