Statesmen Sweep Trojans in Home Opener
Danielle Pendzinski tallied 12 kills to help guide Statesmen to win
by Wade Steinlage
Oskaloosa–The William Penn women’s volleyball team held its home opener on Thursday night in the Penn Gymnasium as they took on the Hannibal-LaGrange Trojans.
WPU (6-4) swept the Trojans (2-12) in straight sets (25-21, 25-20, 25-16) to take the non-conference matchup.
The Statesmen battled themselves early having committed a handful of errors, but strong attacking and solid defensive play got them back on track in route to the victory.
“We started out a bit slow,” Head Coach Aleesha Cleaver said, “but I think once we got things moving we saw us come to life.”
Each team made its run throughout the first set. Down 20-21, WPU went on a 5-0 run to close and take the set.
The Statesmen were challenged again in the second set, jumping out to a 14-7 lead but the Trojans battled back to tie the game late in the set 19-19. Fortunately, the home team had a big run left in them to take set two.
Early in the third set, William Penn trailed 3-6, but once again were able to overcome the deficit. Led by clutch kills from Nashali Cruz (So., Bayamon, P.R., Biology), the Statesmen gained momentum and mad their run to take the set and complete the sweep.
Coach Cleaver was impressed with Cruz’s play and energy tonight adding “Nashali played extremely well. Her energy was big and her play was even bigger. She came up huge for us.”
Offensively, the navy and gold outhit the visitors .198 to -.009 led by the duo of Jordan Carter (Sr., Sigourney, Iowa, Elementary Education), who finished with 13 kills, and Danielle Pendzinski (Jr., Winnebago, Ill., Elementary Education) with 12 kills.
William Penn had three players reach double-digit totals in assists. Marie Garcia (Sr., Communications, Kanehoe, Hawaii) and Haley Smith (Sr., Adrian, Mich., Elementary Education) each posted 16 assists while Elena Lucero (Fr., Yuba City, Calif., Political Science) chipped in with 10 of her own.
On the defensive side, the Statesmen played well posting 63 digs as a team led by a big game from Ashley Miller (Sr., Kalona, Iowa, Exercise Science) who posted a game high 23 digs. With the output, Miller now has a total of 212 digs on the young season.
Tonight’s victory marks the fourth sweep on the season so far for the Statesmen, two shy of the six they totaled all of last season.
Next up: WPU will travel to Deerfield Ill. this weekend to play in the Trinity International Tournament starting Friday when they take on Indiana Northwest beginning at 5 p.m.
