VUVB hot start continues with sweep of Lincoln Trail

The Vincennes University Trailblazer volleyball team continued their hot start to the 2022 season Tuesday night when the Blazers picked up the three-set sweep over Lincoln Trail College 25-22, 25-13, 25-17.

The match did not get off to the best of starts for Vincennes, dropping the first four points of the opening set and nine of the first 11 points to begin the match.

VU would rally back to even the score but did not see their first lead until 20-19.

Once the Blazers grabbed the lead, they closed out the match strong, taking the opening set 25-22 over the Lady Statesmen.

Set two again got off to a shaky start for the Trailblazers, with Lincoln Trail holding a narrow 8-7 lead before VU used a 7-0 scoring run to take control of the match.

Vincennes would use a 6-0 scoring run late in the set to take a commanding 22-12 lead, before closing out the second set 25-13 and taking the 2-0 match lead.

Lincoln Trail grabbed the early lead again in the third set, with Vincennes unable to get the lead back until a 3-0 run gave VU a 16-15 advantage.

After the Lady Statesmen took the lead back, Vincennes would finish off the match in style with a 9-0 scoring run to give the Blazers the 25-17 set three win and the 3-0 match sweep.

“We talked about at the beginning of the match that Lincoln Trail was setting the ball all the way to the antennas, so we knew we needed to block the line,” VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. “A lot of teams don’t do that; they usually give about two or more feet between the blockers and the antenna and that’s just too much space. Once we were able to get out blockers all the way out to the antennas, we were really able to control their hitters.”

“We didn’t really make an adjustment, because we normally like to take away the line first and then adjust to the cross,” Sien added. “It took us way too long to get that today but credit the team for making that adjustment and taking away their hitters from there. Our blocking not only changed the momentum of that first set, but really the entire match tonight.”

Sophomore Malgorzata Banasiak (Gdynia, Poland) and freshmen Tuana Turhan (Ankara, Turkey) and Kennedy Sowell (Effingham, Ill.) each finished the match with over six blocks, with Banasiak leading the pack with seven.

Turhan finished with six kills and an ace, with Banasiak adding four kills to her line as well.

VU was led offensively by freshman Paige Parlanti (Las Vegas, Nev.) who picked up her first collegiate double-double, ending with a team-high 10 kills and 16 digs on the night. Parlanti also had a team-high three aces and a block assist to go along with an impressive .348 hitting percentage.

Freshmen Audrey Buis (Franklin, Ind.) and Alexis Chrappa (Effingham, Ill.) added some help at the net with Buis coming away with five kills, three block assists and a pair of digs and Chrappa ending with three kills, one block assist and four digs on the night.

Sophomore setters Hannah Graber (Montgomery, Ind.) and Josephine Mulligan (Saint John, Ind.) ran the Trailblazer offense well all night, with Graber finishing the night with 11 set assists, five kills and three digs and Mulligan ending with 10 set assists, one dig and one ace.

Freshman libero Morgan Netcott (Montague, Mich.) patrolled the back row defensively on her way to a team-high 16 digs on the night and one set assist, along with sophomore Lara Gomes de Castro (Sao Paulo, Brazil) who ended her night with nine digs and an ace.

Sophomore Kaley Roush (Shoals, Ind.) entered the game in the second set and really provided a spark, for the Trailblazers, ending her night with one kill, one block assist and one dig, all coming a big moments in the match.

“I thought our blockers did a really good job, I thought Audrey did a nice job on the ride side as well,” Sien said. “She may not have had the numbers, but she really affected their shots. We didn’t have the big scoring runs like we did Sunday, but we had some. I thought we made some errors, but I thought we were serving tougher. I think we were able to serve in tough, crucial situations against what is probably the best out of the three teams that we’ve faced so far this season.”

“Paige, so far, is as advertised,” Sien added. “We knew we really needed to go after her recruiting this summer because we can never have too many hitters, especially of that caliber. With her experience level playing club in Los Angeles, any player who plays there is going to be a top-level player. She is a type of player that should be averaging a double-double, because we just leave her in there to hit and block on the front row and serve receive and play defense on the back row.”

“The nice thing about Paige is that she reached out to us because VU has her Fire Science major,” Sien said. “But after watching about two minutes of her film, I knew we needed to do everything we could to get her. She was an All-State player and probably one of the top players coming out of Nevada last year.”

The Trailblazers will hit the road for the first time during the 2022 season, heading to Ullin, Illinois Thursday, Aug. 25 for a Region 24 matchup against Shawnee Community College.

This game has been moved to Century High School in Ullin and the match is set to begin at 7:30 p.m. eastern.