Trailblazers use fifth set rally to pick up two wins at the Showdown on the Wabash

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University volleyball team got off to a very strong start Friday afternoon inside the Physical Education Complex, picking up two wins to start the weekend as VU hosts the Showdown on the Wabash.

The Blazers began the day with a big three-set sweep over St. Louis Community College 25-14, 25-8, 25-9, before closing out the first day of the weekend set with a big comeback victory over NJCAA Division II No. 19 Wallace State Community College 31-29, 24-26, 24-26, 25-20, 15-13.

VU began the two-day weekend classic by facing off against the Archers from St. Louis Community College.

Vincennes wasted little time grabbing the early advantage in set one, jumping out to an 11-5 lead, before the Archers would cut the VU lead back down to three.

VU would then use an 8-1 scoring run to again pull away from St. Louis C.C. and lead to the Blazers picking up the set one victory 25-14.

Set two began as a back-and-forth battle, with VU again being the first to break away, going on to outscore the Archers 15-2 and close out the second set on a 5-0 scoring run to take the second set 25-8 and grab the 2-0 match lead.

Looking to complete the sweep VU used an early 5-0 scoring run to take the early lead in set three, later using two more 5-0 scoring runs to help the Blazers pull away late as VU won set three 25-9 and completed the three-set sweep in match one of the day.

"We were definitely on task for the entire match against St. Louis," VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. "Unlike against Wabash Valley Wednesday, where we started off kind of slow and then picked up in sets two and three, I didn't feel like we had a lull at all in this match."

"At times this season, our biggest opponent has been ourselves," Sien added. "While other teams might not take certain teams seriously, I always appreciate that we do. We were really on task the whole time, got the job done and didn't stay out there any longer than we had to. We really felt an urgency to really get it done, which was good because we were able to get a lot of rest before our big match against Wallace State."

The VU offense was led by sophomore Audrey Buis (Franklin, Ind.) who finished the match with 11 kills, five digs, one block and one ace.

Sophomore Paige Parlanti (Las Vegas, Nev.) recorded another double-double, finishing with 10 kills, 11 digs, two blocks and one ace.

Freshman Laura Tavares (Merida, Venezuela) just missed double digits, ending with nine ills, one block and one dig.

Freshmen Elisa Dalla Pozza (Vincenza, Italy) and Isadora Dias (Rio Grande de Norte, Brazil) each had good games at the net, with Dalla Pozza finishing with four kills, one block and two aces, while Dias finishing with three kills, three digs, one block and one ace.

Sophomore Kennedy Sowell (Effingham, Ill.) rounded out the VU offense against St. Louis, finishing with two kills and two blocks.

Sophomore setter Maecy Johnson (Chrisman, Ill.) ran the VU offense, finishing the match with 21 set assists, three digs and one ace.

Freshman setter Libby Mehringer (Jasper, Ind.) also chipped in, finishing with 12 set assists, two digs and one ace.

Sophomore libero Morgan Netcott (Montague, Mich.) controlled the Trailblazer defense, ending with nine digs and two set assists, while freshman Allison Czyzewski (Louisville, Ill.) entered the game and collected one set assist.

The Trailblazers then returned to the P.E. Complex floor for what was easily the main event of the evening when Vincennes took on Wallace State C.C. in a rematch from when the Lions defeated the Trailblazers in five sets in Hanceville, Ala. two weeks ago.

This time Vincennes was back to full strength and looked to avenge their earlier loss to Wallace State.

The Lions grabbed the early lead in set one and quickly built a five-point advantage over VU, before the Blazers slowly started to eat away at this deficit to even the game at 18-18 and later take the lead at 20-19.

This first set was a back-and-forth battle which really showed how evenly matched these two teams are, as the set went into overtime and the two teams traded side outs and momentum swings throughout.

Vincennes battled back after facing set point three separate times to take set one over Wallace State 31-29 and take an early 1-0 match lead.

Wallace State again took an early lead in set two, again building a 15-10 lead, before VU looked to rally back again, climbing all the way back to even the set at 24-24 forcing the set to go into overtime.

The Lions, however, would close out the second set with back-to-back points to take set two 26-24 and even the match at 1-1.

Set three was another close battle, with the score being tied 10 different times throughout the set.

Vincennes looked to hold all of the momentum after a 5-0 scoring run gave the Blazers a 21-17 lead but Wallace State responded back to close out the third set by outscoring VU 7-1 and take set three 26-24 and gain a 2-1 match lead.

With their backs against the wall, the Trailblazers looked to rally back and keep their unbeaten home record intact.

VU jumped out to an early 9-4 lead in set four, before Wallace State cut the deficit down to one and later tied the set at 15-15.

Vincennes would then use a 4-0 scoring run to take a 20-16 lead, which would hold as the Trailblazers took set four over the Lions 25-20 and forced a winner-take-all fifth set.

Set five did not get off to a good start for the Blazers, with Wallace State seemingly having all the momentum after a 5-0 run gave them a 5-1 lead.

This four-point lead would remain with the score being 10-6 before VU was able to score back-to-back points, which then led to a big 6-0 scoring run to completely swing the momentum back to the VU bench by taking a 14-11 lead.

Wallace State would answer back with two points to cut the deficit to one but were unable to completely come back as VU closed out set five 15-13 and picked up the five-set win 3-2 over the Lions.

"It is obviously awesome that we have everyone back and healthy again," Sien said. "But volleyball is a sport where you have fixed formations and the best teams have really great chemistry with every rotation. So, when you have that many people out, even for a week to two weeks like we did, bringing them back in is like we are starting over back in August again. That's something that's pretty unique to volleyball. Other sports, if you are missing one player, you can still kind of go because you don't have a fixed rotation."

"It's going to take us some time to get back to where we were before the injuries," Sien added. "But I do feel that a match like tonight really accelerated that process. Our hearts and minds were really challenged tonight and we really found out how tough of a team this is. If we had to play a short-handed lineup in this match today, I don't know if we could have been that close because Wallace State was playing very well."

"I thought tonight they played better than they did when we played them in Alabama," Sien said. "They are a very good ball control team. Their serve receive was really tough and their defense was pretty good. We really had to pass on point so we could run our offense to score. You really have to be in system to beat a team like that is that good defensively."

The Vincennes offense was led by another double-double by Paige Parlanti, who finished her night with 22 kills, 15 digs, one block and one ace.

Four VU hitters finished the match with double digit kills, with Laura Tavares ending with 15 kills, seven digs and a team-high six blocks.

Audrey Buis and Elisa Dalla Pozza also reached double figures, with Buis ending with 13 kills, seven digs, two blocks and a pair of aces, while Dalla Pozza finished with 12 kills, two blocks, two digs and two set assists.

Kennedy Sowell and Isadora Dias each finished the match with three kill, while Dias added two digs and Sowell finished with two blocks and one dig.

Maecy Johnson again ran the VU offense, finishing her night with an outstanding 49 set assists and just missed out on a double-double with nine digs and one kill. Libby Mehringer also collected four set assists in the match.

Morgan Netcott again controlled the VU defense in the back row, leading the Blazers with 23 digs to go along with two set assists and one ace. Freshman Grace Flexter (Oblong, Ill.) also saw time on the floor against Wallace State and finished with one dig.

"I used three different lineups today all within one match," Sien said. "We can do that because we have so much depth on our team. One set we ran a 6-2 offense in one set, then the other sets we ran a 5-1 and made a couple of other changes in there too. We went from having Isadora coming in for Laura to having Laura play all six rotations in set four and had Isadora coming in as a middle. I can't do that if I don't have the depth available."

"Laura, especially at the end playing all-around, did an awesome job," Sien said. "She did a wonderful job in the back row and she served extremely well. Her serve is really tough and it can come with a lot of errors, but she really served with control at the end of this match."

"Audrey, in the fifth set, misplayed a ball and we were down 4-1 and that could have taken her out of the game," Sien added. "But at the end, she went back there, got on the service line and got us six points with a couple of aces. In this game you have to have a short memory because it was only about five minutes between the misplay and the scoring run and that could have really killed our momentum. She could have gotten down on herself. The team could have gotten down after that play. But credit to her that she was able to put that play behind her and really led us late with those tough serves."

"Paige is going to be Paige," Sien said. "She's always going to get her big numbers. She's always going to get those big swings and the whole world knows she's going to get the ball. She didn't play against Wallace State the first time around, but they know about her. When you get named NJCAA Player of the Week, the whole world knows about you and you are always going to be marked. But with all of that, she still comes away with about five kills per set on average."

"What more can you say about Maecy at this point," Sien added. "When we can pass the ball, she runs a really nice offense out there. A number of players had some really good numbers in this match. But overall, this was really just a gut-check for us. There were times when Wallace State was beating us and to be able to turn it around when we were down one set to two, it really says a lot about this group. With all the different lineups that we put out there, I have full faith that whoever we put out there is going to do their job and do it well."

The Trailblazers will return to the P.E. Complex floor tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 7 when VU closes out the Showdown on the Wabash against Edison State Community College at 2 p.m. eastern.

Other results from the day include Wallace State winning over Wabash Valley 25-14, 25-18, 25-12, Edison State defeated St. Louis C.C. 25-11, 25-23, 25-13 and Edison State defeated Wabash Valley 20-25, 25-21, 20-25, 25-23, 15-13.

"We only have one match tomorrow and it comes at a great time in our schedule," Sien said. "We've got two days off coming up for Fall Break. We don't play again until next weekend. So our schedule right now is really good for us. We need to come in with the same mindset we did today of just getting it done and then we can set ourselves up for a lot of days of rest coming up."

"I think we really need some rest time right now too," Sien added. "We're coming out of mid-terms and everything that comes with that. The late nights and the exams, a lot of homework, so this team could really use a break."

"Tonight was a really big moment for us," Sien said. "Maybe, if we didn't have all those injuries a couple of weeks ago things could have been different. But like I said Wednesday, we are a better team now because we had to go through that. With this match tomorrow and then next weekend, I'm beginning to feel like we're going to be getting back a little bit more into how we were before."

BOX SCORE

GAME ONE

St Louis – 14   8   9   x   x

VUVB (23-4, 9-0) – 25   25   25   x   x

VINCENNES STATS

Audrey Buis – 12.5 points, 1 ace, 11 kills, 1 block assist, 5 digs

Morgan Netcott – 9 digs, 2 set assists

Paige Parlanti – 12 points, 1 ace, 10 kills, 2 block assists, 11 digs

Isadora Dias – 4.5 points, 1 ace, 3 kills, 1 block assist, 3 digs

Allison Czyzewski – 1 set assist

Maecy Johnson – 1 point, 1 ace, 3 digs, 21 set assists

Kennedy Sowell – 3 points, 2 kills, 2 block assists

Elisa Dalla Pozza – 6.5 points, 2 aces, 4 kills, 1 block assist

Laura Tavares – 9.5 points, 9 kills, 1 block assist, 1 dig

Libby Mehringer – 1 point, 1 ace, 2 digs, 12 set assists

GAME TWO

Wallace State – 29   26   26   20   13

VUVB (24-4, 9-0) – 31   24   24   25   15

VINCENNES STATS

Grace Flexter – 1 dig

Audrey Buis – 16.5 points, 2 aces, 13 kills, 1 solo block, 1 block assist, 7 digs

Morgan Netcott – 1 point, 1 ace, 23 digs, 2 set assists

Paige Parlanti – 23.5 points, 1 ace, 22 kills, 1 block assist, 15 digs

Isadora Dias – 3 points, 3 kills, 2 digs

Maecy Johnson – 1 point, 1 kill, 9 digs, 49 set assists

Kennedy Sowell – 4 points, 3 kills, 2 block assists, 1 dig

Elisa Dalla Pozza – 13 points, 12 kills, 2 block assists, 2 digs, 2 set assists

Laura Tavares – 18.5 points, 15 kills, 1 solo block, 5 block assists, 7 digs

Libby Mehringer – 4 set assists