Statesmen Fall Just Short Against Park
Oskaloosa–Despite three closely contested sets, the William Penn women’s volleyball team dropped their matchup against the #6 Park Pirates. The Pirates won in sets of 25-27, 21-25, 20-25.
The loss moves the Statesmen to 8-5 overall, while their record in Heart of America Athletic Conference play drops to 1-3.
Alyvia Johnson (Fr., Owatonna, Minn., Elementary Education) entered the contest as William Penn’s leading killer, and the Statesmen fed her early and often against the Pirates. She accounted for three of the first five points for the navy and gold before Alicia Jaquez (Sr., Farmington, N.M., Biology) got involved with two straight finishers. Johnson added two more to force a Park timeout, but then the Pirates got hot. The visitors rattled off five consecutive points to force a timeout from the hosts, and then the Statesmen tried to claw away at the lead. Johnson and Jaquez continued to give everything they had as the navy and gold rallied late to tie the set at 24. Unfortunately, the Pirates were able to put the set away 27-25. Johnson had an enormous first set, tallying nine kills on only one error. Jaquez also contributed five in the opener.
The Pirates jumped out to a commanding lead early, forcing a Statesmen timeout after taking a 10-5 lead. The navy and gold continued to try to battle back from the early hole. Tori Combs (Jr., Cloverdale, Ind., Psychology) was heavily involved in the comeback attempt, killing home three points while assisting in three blocks. William Penn brought it to within three points on numerous occasions, but were unable to bring it any closer as the Pirates took a 2-0 lead with a 25-21 win.
After trading points back and forth to a 5-5 tie, Park was able to break through to take a 15-10 lead, forcing a Statesmen timeout. The navy and gold were unable to build any kind of momentum, continually trading points with the Pirates for the majority of the set. The Statesmen eventually ran out of time to mount a comeback as Park completed the sweep with a 25-20 win.
Johnson led all attackers on the night with a career high 16 kills. Jaquez and Corrin Lepper (Sr., Jefferson City, Mo., Exercise Science) tied for second on the team with six apiece.
Macy Bailey (Jr., Bondurant, Iowa, Business Management) worked as the primary setter, finishing the night with 22 assists. Annalise Whitcomb (Sr., Humboldt, Kan., General Accounting) complemented her efforts with 15 of her own.
Cameryn Campbell (Sr., Jefferson City, Mo., Elementary Education) led the Statesmen with 13 assists, while Johnson joined her in double digits with 11. Alyssa Young (Jr., Winter Springs, Fla., Biology) was a part of seven blocks in the game.
“I am very proud of our effort and execution,” said Head Coach Aleesha Cleaver. “We had a goal of slowing down their outsides, and that is something we did a great job in doing. I think offensively we were able to spread the love, which was huge and something we need to continue doing going forward. We just had a couple too many errors in times where we needed to execute and couldn’t quite come back from that.”
What’s Next: The Statesmen kick off Homecoming with an 11 AM contest against MidAmerica Nazarene.
