Rally Falls Short as WPU Sees Season End on Senior Night
Oskaloosa–The William Penn women’s volleyball team fought to the bitter end, but failed to punch its ticket for the postseason as it fell 3-2 to Grand View in Heart of America Athletic Conference action Tuesday.
WPU (18-16, 8-10 Heart) dropped its Senior Night contest by scores of 21-25, 18-25, 25-17, 25-21, 10-15. The Statesmen needed to win to clinch a berth in the Heart Championship, but with the loss unfortunately fell into a tiebreaker with Peru State and Missouri Valley and then lost on criteria as its season came to a close.
The home squad led several times in the first set, but failed to close strong in falling behind 1-0. The navy and gold also competed well for much of the second round, only to fade at the end as GVU (15-14, 13-5 Heart) pulled out to a commanding 2-0 advantage.
Needing to win to stay alive, William Penn found another gear in the third set and used four separate mini runs to turn a 6-6 tie into a 17-10 advantage. The Statesmen cruised from there to get on the board.
WPU then managed to again stave off elimination with a strong fourth set. Tied at 21-21, the hosts took advantage of three Viking errors before Alyvia Johnson (Sr., Owatonna, Minn., Business Management) capped the set victory with a kill. Overall, the senior tallied a team-high 14 kills on the night.
The sides shared the first eight points of the fifth and decisive set, but Grand View responded by taking the next three points and never surrendered the lead down the stretch.
William Penn won the hitting battle .106-.085 and was also better at the defensive net with 12-8 edge in blocks.
Jade Melton (Sr., Hallsville, Mo., Psychology) joined the double-digit club with 12 kills, while Patricia De Souza (Sr., Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sports Management) managed nine winners and Khiani Jackson (Jr., St. Joseph, Mo., Psychology) produced seven.
Lydia Huston (Jr., Kansas City, Mo., Biology) assisted on 34 of William Penn’s kills, while Kaya Caprini (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn., Psychology) guided the service game with three aces. Caprini also topped WPU with 19 digs; Johnson’s 16 digs and Melton’s 18 digs helped both seniors to double-doubles in their final collegiate matches.
Defensively, six Statesmen managed a block with De Souza stopping eight Grand View attempts.
“We battled until the very end and unfortunately fell short,” Head Coach Lauren Eldridge said. “While our season did not end where we wanted, we learned a lot as a program and have a lot of positive things to look forward to in the future of this program. I am so proud of our seniors and how they have elevated this program on and off the court.”
