The volleyball team rallied to beat Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne Tuesday night in three straight matches (32-30, 30-27, 30-26) to improve their record to 11-4 overall.
“It was nice to be at home.”said head coach Denise Van De Walle. “My goal was to play well enough and confident enough to play everyone. We met that goal. It was very nice to play everybody. I thought everyone contributed to the overall win. It was a good team effort.”
Senior setter Natalie Becker led the team with 37 assists, while senior middle Caty Rommeck led the team with 13 kills. Senior Karen Amstutz had a team-high three service aces.
“Bridget [Protas] came in and got three blocks in one game, which is pretty impressive,” said Van De Walle. “Laura [Twyman] had four block assists.”
Sophomore Naudia Bedricky had the opportunity to play in one game. She tied sophomore Susie Norris for second on the team overall, with eight kills in 16 attempts.
“Naudia came in game three and I think she did a great job,”Van De Walle said. “She had eight kills in one game. I was pretty impressed. She hit a .375.”
True freshman Melissa Mohr posted her first collegiate kill and block solo along with four digs.
“Melissa Mohr did a nice job on the right side for her first time,” Van De Walle said. “She had one kill and two errors. It was the first time we allowed her to across the front row. I thought she did a nice job. She got a solo block and her first college kill.”
Van De Walle was glad to give everyone the opportunity to participate, however their were a few things she felt the team could have done better.
“I feel the disappointment of the match was, we are still making a lot of unforced errors in hitting and we’ve got to really clean that up to get ready for Miami and Marshall this weekend,” Van De Walle said.
The Falcons had a team total of 52 kills and hit .188 as a team, while the Volleydons recorded 46 kills and hit .126. Both teams had nine total blocks.
“Our goal was to block three balls a game, which we got did,” Van De Walle said. “We wanted to hit above a .240, but we did not get that. Part of the issue was we just didn’t hit effectively. They have a small blocker in their setter and she touched a lot of balls. That wasn’t what we wanted to have happen. We didn’t get nearly the kills we should have.”
