VUVB picks up two wins on first day of the Showdown on the Wabash

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Trailblazer volleyball team extended their winning streak to eight games Friday after defeating Edison State Community College 25-23, 25-19, 25-13 and Snead State Community College 22-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-9 to begin the Showdown on the Wabash at the P.E. Complex.

The Trailblazers opened the two-day tournament against Edison State Community College from Piqua, Ohio.

The first set against the Chargers began slowly for VU until sophomore Lara Gomes de Castro (Sao Paulo, Brazil) gave the Blazers the momentum with a 7-0 scoring run.

Edison State fought back and cut the deficit to a single point but were unable to take the lead as Vincennes closed out the first set going the distance 25-23.

Vincennes grabbed the early momentum in set two as well, holding a 16-9 lead midway through the set.

Edison State could only manage to cut the VU lead down to four as Vincennes took set two 25-19.

The Trailblazers looked to close out the opening match of the Showdown on the Wabash in the third set and quickly built a 12-4 lead over Edison State.

The Chargers would rally back to within four, but Vincennes regained the momentum and closed out the third set scoring nine of the final 10 points to win set three 25-13 and complete the sweep.

“We struggled in the first set against Edison State,” VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. “I thought we had some decent leads in the set but we just kept letting them catch up. If we had just been a little more consistent in one or two areas, we would have won the set a lot sooner. We just get into these ruts at the beginning of matches all year and it seems like it takes us a set or a set and a half to warm up.”

“At least we got better as the match went on and got a bit more consistent,” Sien added. “It all starts with our serve receive and it seems like it just takes a while for us to get our serve receive going and that’s why we have such slow starts. Once we got into our game, Edison State really had a hard time keeping up with us and our offense was pretty much spot on.”

“I thought we had a very nice serving runs too,” Sien said. “Anytime we are doing well, it’s because we are able to have some nice serving runs. Hannah had a couple. Lara had a couple. Josephine had one. Whenever we are able to have three or more servers get on nice runs, we are hard to stop. Strong serves and being almost surgical about hitting at certain players, plays into our hands.”

“Pretty much since I’ve been back, we haven’t been at 100 percent as a team,” Sien added. “And tonight, we again had to make adjustments. We moved Alexis to the outside and moved Maecy to the right side as a hitter and both of them really played well all day for us.”

The Trailblazers were led in the first match of the day with another double-double performance by freshman Paige Parlanti (Las Vegas, Nev.) who finished with 17 kills, 15 digs, two aces and two blocks.

Sophomore Malgorzata Banasiak (Gdynia, Poland) had a very nice offensive game, finishing with nine kills on a .571 hitting percentage, with a pair of digs and a block.

Freshman Maecy Johnson (Chrisman, Ill.) and sophomore Hannah Graber (Montgomery, Ind.) were next with Johnson ending with four kills, two blocks and two digs and Graber finishing with three kills, three aces, 10 digs and a team-high 19 set assists to finish off a double-double of her own.

Freshmen Alexis Chrappa (Effingham, Ill.), Nisa Salis (Ankara, Turkey) and Tuana Turhan (Ankara, Turkey) each finished with two kills.

Chrappa added five digs and a block, while Salis finished with three blocks, two digs and an ace and Turhan ended with four digs, two blocks and a set assist.

Freshman Audrey Buis (Franklin, Ind.) entered the match in the third set and recorded one kill and one dig.

Sophomore setter Josephine Mulligan (Saint John, Ind.) ended the match with 11 set assists, eight digs and an ace.

Freshman libero Morgan Netcott (Montague, Mich.) and Lara Gomes de Castro controlled the back row defense with Netcott leading the Blazers with 20 digs and a set assist and Gomes de Castro adding six digs.

Vincennes took the floor again later Friday night to finish out the first day of the weekend tournament against Snead State Community College from Boaz, Alabama.

Set one was a back-and-forth battle with Snead State gaining the upper hand with a late 3-0 scoring run to put the Parsons ahead by four.

Vincennes was unable to complete the late comeback as Snead State took set one 25-22.

Vincennes looked to bounce back in set two, trading points and the lead with Snead State throughout most of the set.

Vincennes would take the lead back late at 23-21 and held on through four straight side outs to take set two 25-23 and even the match at 1-1.

The Trailblazers again battled through the early stages of the third set before using a 7-1 scoring run to take a three-point lead.

VU would hold on to this lead as Snead State was unable to put together a scoring run of their own with the Trailblazers taking set three 25-19 and taking a 2-1 match lead.

Looking to close out the first day of the Showdown on the Wabash on a high note the Trailblazers took their play to another level in the fourth set.

VU grabbed a big lead with an 8-1 scoring run and put the match away with a late 10-1 scoring run as the Trailblazers took set four 25-9 and earned the 3-1 match victory.