VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Volleyball program looks to start the VU Athletics season with a bang on Sunday, August 21, when VU hosts Region 24 opponent Shawnee Community College and East Central (Mo.) College in tri-match action.

The Trailblazers are coming off of a historic season in 2021, which saw VU capture their first Region Championship in 15 years and first Region title at the NJCAA Division I level.

Never wanting to settle, Head Coach Gary Sien continues to set his sights higher coming into the 2022 season after bringing in another tremendous recruiting class.

Vincennes will have five returning sophomores for the 2022 season, including setters Hannah Graber (Montgomery, Ind.) and Josephine Mulligan (Saint John, Ind.).

Sophomores Kaley Roush (Shoals, Ind.), Lara Gomes de Castro (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Malgorzata Banasiak (Gdynia, Poland) will also return to the P.E. Complex floor for the 2022 season.

“We always want our returning sophomores to come in as leaders,” Sien said. “Even beyond the volleyball court, we look for them to bring their life experiences from being at VU and communicate that to the incoming freshmen. Things like knowing where all of the buildings on campus are at. I just really like how they have taken these freshmen under their wing.”

“At this level, pretty much every school has a new team every year and we just don’t have the time to gel as much as a team as I would like,” Sien added. “But I feel like our sophomores have done a good job of that since they have been back on campus. This sophomore class will be shouldering a lot of responsibility, especially with only returning one hitter from last year’s team.”

“Probably the most crucial thing we have going for us is that we are returning both setters from last year’s team,” Sien said. “The setters are very important on the floor, so it is very nice to have both setters returning from last year. We usually return one, but it has been a while since we were able to have both setters back.”

Coach Sien had a tough task this offseason as he will look to replace 87 percent of his team’s kills and 88 percent of blocks from the 2021 season.

The incoming freshman class will have some big shoes to fill as VU looks to replace 2021 Region 24 Player of the Year Grace Earp (Mattoon, Ill.) and All-Region 24 honoree Addison Ainscough (Cannelburg, Ind.).

Vincennes will also be without the front row presence of outgoing sophomores Emilie Cornelson (Saskatoon, Canada), Jamie Russell (East St. Louis, Ill.), and third-year sophomore Breanna Metzger (Dale, Ind.).

The Trailblazers will be without Russell who signed with NAIA Stephens College in Missouri over the off-season and Jagoda Szybinska (Poznan, Poland) who signed to play at NCAA Division II Northern State University in South Dakota to play with her twin sister.

Coach Sien hit the recruiting trail hard over the offseason, bringing in eight new freshmen who will all be competing for spots in the rotation this season.

VU welcomes in outside hitters Paige Parlanti (Las Vegas, Nev.), Alexis Chrappa (Effingham, Ill.) and Audrey Buis (Franklin, Ind.), as well as middle blockers Kennedy Sowell (Effingham, Ill.), Nisa Salis (Ankara, Turkey) and Tuana Turhan (Ankara, Turkey).

Coach Sien also signed Maecy Johnson (Chrisman, Ill.) and Morgan Netcott (Montague, Mich.) to help bolster the Trailblazers back row defense and as additional options for setting this season.

“Primarily, I want the incoming freshmen to understand what last year’s team did and how historical winning the Region Championship was,” Sien said. “But on top of that, they now have their chance to leave their own mark on the program here, as the next step is to get to the District Championship and the winner of that goes to the National Tournament. So there are still goals to be achieved here.”

“I also want to make sure the incoming freshmen understand the great rivalries what we have here within Region 24,” Sien added. “Even though we are still the new kids to the Region, we have earned their respect, even before winning the Championship last year. That might be difficult to understand at first, until we start playing the games, but I say it is like facing your biggest rival in high school, magnified by 100 times. These are some hard-fought, emotional matches within Region 24.”

“We graduated and lost quite a bit off of last year’s team,” Sien said. “When you lose your Player of the Year libero, it is going to be hard to replace that level of back row ball control. We also lost a majority of our front row and blocking from last year. But that will happen some years at this level, but regardless of all of that, these freshmen will get the chance to step up.”

“We don’t have the time to worry about the people who aren’t here,” Sien added. “I’m more worried about the people who are here. We just need to treat it with a ‘next man up’ mentality and be ready when your number is called because now it will be called. These freshmen are going to be filling some big shoes this year that maybe they didn’t think they would have to this year, but now they will and they have to. All of us need to step up.”

The Trailblazers will begin the 2022 season with a flurry of matches, playing six matches in seven days during the first week of the season.

VU will begin their Region title defense Sunday, Aug. 21 when the Trailblazers host Shawnee Community College at 12 p.m. Eastern and East Central (Mo.) College at 4 p.m. eastern.

The Trailblazers will also host Lincoln Trail College Tuesday, Aug. 23 at the P.E. Complex. That match is set to begin at 7 p.m. eastern.

“My expectations and goals for every season never change,” Sien said. “Repeat as Region Champions and then my goal every year is to make it to the National Championships. I think that is the goal of all of us coaches at VU, with our ultimate goal is to win the National Championship. If we fall short, fine. But that is always going to be one of our goals. We are just going to train as hard as we can so we can be ready when we get in that position.”

All VU Volleyball home games will be live streamed on the Vincennes University Stretch Live portal, which can be found under the ‘Inside Athletics’ tab on the VU Athletics website.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Women’s Soccer kicks off its 2022 regular season at the end of this week with two road matches against North Dakota on Thursday and at Winona State on Saturday. Start times are 1 p.m. for both.

The match at North Dakota Thursday will be Southern Indiana’s first regular season match as an NCAA Division I program. Southern Indiana is beginning their first year as an NCAA Division I program, transitioning from NCAA Division II and their previous membership in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. USI is now a member of the Ohio Valley Conference, the eighth-oldest NCAA Division I conference.

USI enters the 2022 regular season after a 1-0-2 record in preseason exhibition matches. The Screaming Eagles earned a 1-1 draw in their first exhibition at home against the University of Missouri Kansas City. Junior forward Morgan Beyer (Rossford, Ohio) scored the goal for USI in that match. In their second exhibition, USI won 1-0 at Illinois Chicago on a goal by junior forward Paige Vanek (St. Charles, Missouri). USI’s last exhibition resulted in a 0-0 draw at Murray State.

The 2022 USI squad features 33 players – 18 returning players and 15 newcomers, beginning its seventh season under Head Coach Eric Schoenstein, who has a 65-36-14 record leading the last six seasons. USI was a Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament Finalist in the 2021 season.

Three of USI’s top goal-scorers from a season ago return in 2022 for the Screaming Eagles. Beyer along with senior midfielder Jill DiTusa (St. Charles, Illinois) and junior midfielder Avery Schone (Galena, Ohio) lead an experienced front for USI. DiTusa led the team with six goals, while Schone scored five goals and Beyer found the back of the net four times in 2021. Schone was an All-GLVC selection last season.

Senior goalkeeper Maya Etienne (Midland, Michigan) is back in net for USI after a strong 2021 season between the posts. Etienne recorded 54 saves and a 0.81 goals against average in 16 matches played last season. For her career, Etienne already holds the top spot in the USI record books for career shutouts with 29 entering the 2022 season. Etienne also enters the 2022 season with 236 career saves, which is good for sixth all-time at USI.

USI was projected to place eighth in the Ohio Valley Conference in a vote submitted by the league’s head coaches and communication directors. SIU Edwardsville topped the OVC preseason poll with 123 points and 11 first-place votes. UT Martin was picked second with 119 points and seven first-place votes. Etienne represented USI on the 2022 OVC Soccer Preseason Players to Watch List.

USI’s opponent on Thursday, North Dakota, picked up a 3-3 draw in their lone exhibition match on August 7 against the University of Manitoba. The Fighting Hawks return three of their top scorers in Hannah Olson, Bailey McNitt, and Julia Briggs from the 2021 season. Olson scored four goals last year as the top returning goal-scorer, while McNitt comes back the top points-scorer from a season ago. McNitt tallied 10 points on three goals and four assists. Briggs found the back of the net twice last season. Senior goalkeeper Madi Livingston is back in net after posting 69 saves and 1.69 goals against average last season. Overall, North Dakota went 3-13-1 with a 1-8 Summit League conference record in 2021.

Saturday’s opponent, Winona State, is out of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in NCAA Division II. Winona State went 4-12-1 with a 3-11-1 conference record in the 2021 season. The Warriors return three of their top-five scorers from last year, including leading scorer Riley Harmon who had four goals. Ella Roberts and Abigail Williams each scored twice last season. Alyson Jumper and Yanel Ortiz split time in net for Winona State in 2021, both returning for the Warriors in 2022. Jumper had 10 starts with 52 saves and 1.47 goals against average, while Ortiz made seven starts with 36 saves and a 1.55 GAA.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – A trio of fourth-inning runs allowed by the Evansville Otters was too much to overcome in a 5-2 loss to the Windy City ThunderBolts Tuesday night.

Starters Austin Gossmann and Kenny Mathews were strong to start Tuesday night, each putting up three scoreless frames.

In the fourth, however, Windy City found offense. After a Dan Robinson double put multiple ThunderBolts in scoring position, Bren Spillane brought home the game’s first two runs with a two-run double to right.

Later in the inning, Peyton Isaacson drove in a third run to extend the Windy City advantage.

The game hit a standstill in the middle innings, Evansville leaving numerous men on board.

Windy City extended the lead in the eighth, Spillane driving in another pair of runs – this time with a two-run shot to left field.

Down 5-0, Evansville finally found the run column in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Brody Tanksley and Andy Armstrong began the inning with back-to-back singles. Tanksley found his way home on a passed ball and following a pair of outs, J.R. Davis brought in Armstrong, reaching on an error.

The Otters’ comeback hopes ended there as an Evansville strikeout ended the game.

The win went to Kenny Mathews, advancing him to 7-3 in 2022. Austin Gossmann received the loss, giving up three runs on six hits in 6.2 innings.

Tanksley and Bryan Rosario led the way for Evansville, each picking up three hits while Armstrong added two hits of his own.

The series continues Wednesday night at 6:35 p.m. at Bosse Field. Audio-only coverage is available on the Otters YouTube page, while the paid video stream is available via FloBaseball.