VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University volleyball team finished out another packed weekend of competition by sweeping their two matches Saturday to close out the 2024 Showdown on the Wabash tournament.
VU began the day with a three-set sweep over St. Louis Community College 25-19, 25-13, 25-18 before closing out the tournament with a sweep over Calhoun Community College 25-11, 25-18, 25-14.
Vincennes got the morning started off strong against St. Louis C.C., scoring the first six points of the match to open an early lead.
The Archers would answer back and even the score at 7-7 before VU built their lead back to 19-12 later in the set.
St. Louis fought hard in the first set but were unable to overcome the deficit as Vincennes grabbed set one of the day 25-19 to take an early 1-0 match lead.
VU began set two the same way set one began, opening the set with seven straight points and building a commanding 12-2 advantage over St. Louis.
The Archers would again battle but were unable to cut into the VU lead as a late 6-0 scoring run helped seal VU’s set two victory 25-13, giving the Blazers a 2-0 lead in the match.
St. Louis looked determined to avoid the sweep early in set three, holding their first lead of the match and gaining a quick 9-4 advantage over VU, before the Blazers rallied back with an 8-1 scoring run to take a 12-10 lead.
The two teams traded points and small scoring runs before VU closed out the set by scoring six of the final seven points to take set three 25-18 and complete the sweep over the Archers.
“We always talk about with these two day tournaments at this level that there are not many hours between our last match yesterday and our first match today,” VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. “It’s not a lot of time to recover physically, mentally and emotionally. So these weekends are always a great challenge just because of the schedule.”
“It definitely says a lot about this team that after losing an emotional match last night and come back today and respond in such a great way,” Sien added. “They could have easily just not shown up today and gone through the motions. This game is so mental and emotional. When you touch that ball even for that microsecond, it has to be perfect and if your mind is not right, it can be pretty off. No other sport has that.”
The VU offense was led by sophomores Laura Tavares (Merida, Venezuela) and Elisa Dalla Pozza (Vincenza, Italy) against the Archers.
Tavares led the team with nine kills, three digs and one block, while Dalla Pozza came away with eight kills, three digs, two blocks and one ace.
