Trailblazers split tough games on first day of Owens CC Tournament

PERRYSBURG, Ohio – The Vincennes University Trailblazers volleyball team suffered their first loss of the 2022 season Friday night on the opening day of the two-day Owens Community College tournament.

VU fell in four sets to NJCAA Division II No. 15-ranked Richard Bland College 25-20, 18-25, 22-25, 20-25 before immediately turning around and defeating Muskegon Community College in four sets 17-25, 25-18, 27-25, 25-14.

The Trailblazers took the court to begin their weekend tournament and VU quickly made an impact, jumping out to a 16-11 lead midway through the opening set over the Richard Bland Statesmen.

Vincennes continued to roll with their lead as VU took the early 1-0 match lead taking set one 25-20.

RBC battled back in the second set, grabbing an early lead and expanding to an eight-point advantage before taking set two and evening the match 25-18.

Vincennes fell behind early in the third set as well before rallying back with a 7-1 scoring run to take an 11-10 lead.

The two teams traded points in a back-and-forth battle of a set, with the Statesmen coming out on top and taking the 2-1 match lead 25-22.

Trailing in a match for the first time this season, the Trailblazers looked to avoid their first loss of the season as the fourth set began as another close battle.

Richard Bland College grabbed control of the match late with a 23-17 lead, before VU answered with three straight points, but were unable to close the margin any further as RBC took set four and the match 25-20.

VU was led offensively by freshman Paige Parlanti (Las Vegas, Nev.) who recorded another double-double on the season with a team-high 11 kills and 20 digs, while also adding an ace and a block assist on the night.

Freshmen Audrey Buis (Franklin, Ind.) and Alexis Chrappa (Effingham, Ill.) both hit well at the net with Buis finishing with seven kills and a block assist and Chrappa ending with six kills, seven digs and a block assist.

Freshman Tuana Turhan (Ankara, Turkey) and sophomore Malgorzata Banasiak (Gdynia, Poland) each recorded four kills against Richard Bland, with Turhan filling up the box score with three digs, two block assists and a set assist, with Banasiak finishing with a team-high three block assists.

Setters sophomore Hannah Graber (Montgomery, Ind.) and Maecy Johnson (Chrisman, Ill.) rounded out the VU offense with Graber getting two kills with her double-double of 16 set assists and 11 digs and Johnson getting one kill and just missing a double-double with nine set assists and nine digs.

Freshman Kennedy Sowell (Effingham, Ill.) controlled the net defensively for VU, match Banasiak for a team-high three block assists, while adding one dig.

The backrow defense was anchored by freshman libero Morgan Netcott (Montague, Mich.) and sophomore Lara Gomes de Castro (Sao Paulo, Brazil). Netcott finished with 12 digs and four set assists, while Gomes de Castro ended her match with five digs and an ace.

“Well, starting your day with a three-hour delay certainly doesn’t help,” VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said as the tournament ran behind schedule on the first day. “It wasn’t the best of circumstances, but we weren’t the only ones affected by that, so we had to go into our match and try to make the best out of it that we could.”

“We had an extremely strong start and had really good control of the game,” Sien added. “We served extremely tough and really took them out of their offense in set one. Then I think we weren’t as aggressive as we were early on and Richard Bland started serving us extremely tough back. We just got into a really long rut where our passing was not consistent where we could run all three of our hitters. Which just made our offense very predictable.”

“Despite that, all three sets that we lost were still pretty close,” Sien said. “So maybe a positive I can take out of this game is that even though we weren’t nearly playing at the top of our game, we were still battling.”

Vincennes had zero time to dwell on this result as VU had to immediately turn around and play Muskegon Community College from Muskegon, Mich. in the second of a back-to-back.

VU was slow out of the gates against the Jayhawks after their four-set battle with Richard Bland, with Muskegon holding on to an early lead to take set one 25-17.

The Trailblazers regrouped before the second set and Coach Sien came up with a new rotation going forward.

This new strategy paid off quickly with VU taking seven of the first nine points of set two.

VU continued to ride this momentum to take set two and even the match 25-18.

In the pivotal set three, the Trailblazers found themselves in another tightly contested battle. Muskegon jumped out to an early lead and looked to secure control of the match with a late 23-19 lead.

Vincennes responded back in a big way, with a 6-1 scoring run to force overtime. VU continued to ride this momentum, along with a key kill from freshman Audrey Buis to take set three 27-25 and take a 2-1 match lead.

With the Trailblazers looking to close out a very long first day of the Owens CC Tournament, VU used four separate scoring runs of three or more points to grab control of set four and go on to take the match 25-14.

Paige Parlanti continued the strong start to her collegiate career with her second double-double of the day against Muskegon, finishing with a team-high 16 kills and 17 digs. Parlanti also added three solo blocks and a block assist defensively and three aces.

Audrey Buis recorded her first career double-double, setting new career-highs with 14 kills and 13 digs, while also recording two aces and one block assist.

Tuana Turhan finished with seven kills, four block assists, two digs and one ace, with Hannah Graber and Alexis Chrappa close behind with six kills, seven digs, 41 set assists and one ace for Graber and five kills, four digs and two block assists for Chrappa.

Graber’s 41 set assists are the second-most in her career, falling five short of a new career-high.

Kennedy Sowell rounds out the VU offense with three kills and two block assists to close out the night.

Malgorzata Banasiak and Maecy Johnson only saw the court in the first set, but Banasiak still managed to come away with one solo block and three block assists and Johnson finished her night with three set assists and two digs.

Freshman Nisa Salis (Ankara, Turkey) entered the game in the opening set as well and came away with a block assist.

Morgan Netcott led the Blazers defensively with 20 digs and Lara Gomes de Castro added eight digs and a very impressive five aces.

“We don’t normally lose four sets in a row,” Sien said. “So when that happens, we have to do something to change things up. This is the first time we’ve done it this year because this was really the first time we’ve faced some tough adversity. But it’s something we’ve done last year, where when we get into those tough ruts, we go with a five-one, one setter offense and tonight Hannah ran that for us.”

“She has great experience running a one setter offense,” Sien added. “And the nice thing about a one-setter system is that the set is always the same. No matter who good your two setters are, there are going to be some differences. At that point in the match, we felt like that needed to be done, just to get that extra level of consistency.”

“We also switched a few other things, we put Audrey on the outside and she had a really nice match,” Sien said. “That is more her spot and to be able to put her and Paige out there, that’s some pretty big firepower for us and we really needed that. We put Alexis on the right-side, so she had to block more which I thought she did a pretty nice job doing. She also swings well offensively too. At that point, we just needed more offense on our left-side.”

“In the third set, we faced set point twice, but we had comeback before after facing set point this season against Lake Land,” Sien added. “Doing it today is even tougher than that, because we did it against Lake Land at home. That was a real gut-check for us. Whoever was going to win that third set was going to win the match. So that was some true grit to persevere through that. Audrey coming through with a left-handed kill really turned things around for us. Her doing that left-handed, I just sat back and said, ‘wow, how did she do that’. Because that’s a tough shot. The set was past the pin and she takes the ball and dumbs it straight down. That was the point of not only the set, but the match.”

“This was also a big match for Morgan Netcott too,” Sien said. “Facing a bunch of kids that she has either played in high school or club with and going against her club coach, this was a tough game for her as well. She led us in digs and had a few moments, but just imagine her emotions going into that match, especially playing in front of so many of her friends and family who made the trip down to see her play. I’m proud that she played extremely well, played under control and demonstrated some really good leadership on the floor. It was her day and I’m really happy for her and I think the team is really happy for her too.”

The Trailblazers will return to the Owens CC floor Saturday, Sept. 3 for the final day of the Owens CC Tournament.

Vincennes will square off against the College of Lake County at 10 a.m. eastern, before closing out the weekend tournament against Glen Oaks Community College at 2:30 p.m. eastern.

“This will be a first for this team this year but our returning players have had similar situations last year,” Sien said about making the quick turnaround between games. “It’s nothing new. Ideally, we would have been done several hours before we were tonight, but we weren’t and there’s nothing we can do about it now.”

“The two teams we are facing tomorrow are a little bit unknown to us right now,” Sien added. “Lake County has a new coach that I know, somewhat, from being in Region 4 and we haven’t played Glen Oaks in a number of years. But through these first eight games of the season, we’ve gone through a lot, so I think we will be fine. Despite the schedule problems and getting out late tonight, I believe we will be fine tomorrow.”