William Penn Takes Set from #8 Grand View, Falls in Four

William Penn University Athletics

by Wade Steinlage

Des Moines–The Statesmen volleyball team opened Tuesday’s Heart of America Athletic Conference matchup with #8 Grand View with one of its best sets of the season, but unfortunately could not maintain that level of play in a 3-1 setback.

WPU (11-19, 2-11 Heart) lost by scores of 25-19, 14-25, 10-25, 20-25. The squad was outhit .214-.056.

The visitors owned a .190 clip in the opening set, while limiting the Vikings (23-7, 14-0 Heart) to a .079 mark. William Penn trailed 11-9, but rallied for five consecutive points. GVU was able to knot the set at 14-14 only to see the navy and gold post five of the next six points and cruise to the victory.

The Statesmen win woke a sleeping giant, however, and the rest of the evening belonged to Grand View. The second set started as tight as possible at 9-9, but the hosts posted six unanswered and never trailed again.

While round #3 was completely dominated by GVU, WPU attempted to extend the contest with a solid showing in the fourth set. The crew trailed just 12-11 and made another run to get within two at 20-18, but the Vikings closed with five of the last seven points to wrap it up.

Alicia Jaquez (Fr., Farmington, N.M., Biology) paced the Statesmen with 10 kills, while Claire Simmons (Sr., Williamsburg, Iowa, Psychology) was next with eight winners. Jordan Carter (Jr., Sigourney, Iowa, Elementary Education) added seven more and the duo of Nashali Cruz (Fr., Bayamon, P.R., Biology) and Nesreen Iskandrani (So., Lawrence, Kan., History/Government) each recorded four points. Iskandrani hit a team-best .273.

Haley Smith (Jr., Adrian, Mich., Elementary Education) finished with 34 assists and Ashley Miller (Jr., Kalona, Iowa, Exercise Science) ended up with 21 digs.

WPU tallied four aces of its own, but could not keep pace with the 11 service winners by Grand View.

Next Up: William Penn travels to Kansas City, Mo. Thursday to face Avila in Heart action at 7 p.m.