Volleyball earns hard fought victory

By Emmanuel Akitunde

October 1, 2010 No Comments

Missouri Western’s volleyball team pulled out an impressive five set victory over the Pittsburg State Gorillas (22-25, 26-24, 26-28, 25-19 and 16-14) in front of a ruckus home crowd in the Looney Complex.

Although the Griffons ruled the night, the match started off on a sour note, with Western losing the first set 22-25.

The Griffons only hit .182 and had chances to take over the first set but couldn’t capitalize. The second set showed off Western’s determination as they battled back and forth with the Gorillas.

Down 23-20 in the second, Hannah Zimmerman got two of her 13 kills back to back to cut the lead to one.

The team would go on to win the set 26-24. Head coach, Cory Frederick, would attribute the teams determination to their focus before the match.

“Our mind set was very relaxed as we just wanted to control what we could on our side of the net, regardless of the opponent,” Frederick said. “We had a couple of strategies that we were looking to implement into the match and the players were able to do so with very little disruption to the rest of our game.”

In the third set, Pitt State showed resilience as well. With the Griffons getting off to a great start, Pitt State battle back from three down early on to win a set that could’ve gone either way.

The fourth set was won comfortably by Western 25-19, and the final set was highly contested but the team effort of the Griffons prevailed.

The team turned in great performances as freshman, Stephanie Hattey, had 13 kills, 25 assist and 13 digs. Tahler Johnston had a career high of 22 kills and Meghan Voelz had 16 digs.

Voelz believes the team took advantage of the Gorillas’ mishaps.

“We just tried to capitalize on their mistakes instead of focusing on ours,” Voelz said. “And Hannah and all of our pin hitters were having great games. We capitalized on their middle blockers not double blocking. I think we really took advantage of that.”

Junior Alexandra Behnke feels the win against the Gorillas shows how far the team has come.

“Well, beating Pitt State was a huge accomplishment for us. In my three years here at MWSU, we hadn’t beat them until Wednesday night,” Behnke said. “I think the fact that we came back was a huge statement in the team we are becoming. That we are able to refocus and push through the obstacles we faced.”