It is a rare feat in college sports for a second year program to find themselves at the top of their conference's standings, but with a 3-0 and 3-1 wins today, the Park University Gilbert women's volleyball team accomplished just that. By scores of 26-24, 25-16 and 25-20 in the first match and 20-25, 25-20, 25-15 and 25-14 in the second match, they moved to 9-1 and dethroned the University of Saint Katherine in the process.
"We went into these games with a specific game plan and we really did a good job of executing and minimizing their big hitters on the other side of the net," head coach Clay Webb said. "I couldn't be more proud of this team's hard work and dedication to our goal of being CalPac regular season champions and we're three matches away from achieving our goal."
In game one, the Buccaneers led for the entirety of set one, but never led by more than three points. With the scored knotted at 24, it was back-to-back attack errors for the Firebirds that sealed the win for the Bucs.
It was errors that made the difference in set one and ultimately, the match. The Firebirds racked up a whopping 24 in the match compared to just 10 by the Bucs, tying a season low that they set against Providence Christian on Feb. 27. Webb has stressed the importance of not giving away points all season and was pleased with their clean effort today.
"We cleaned up our unforced errors and protected the service line which allowed us to go on a couple runs and we worked really hard to serve receive to side out on the first ball," Webb said. "When we do those things, we are very difficult to beat and we were able to do those things in today's match versus one of the top CalPac opponents."
The Bucs fell behind 3-1 in set two before a kill by middleblocker Makenna Busse gave them a 5-4 lead that they only built on; Busse finished the match with seven kills and six blocks.
Early on in set three, it appeared as if the Firebirds might force a fourth set leading as late as 8-7. Then, the Bucs went on a 17-12 run capped off by middleblocker Kayla Wieserman's kill; K-Nasty hit an outstanding .556 and led the team in kills with 10.
Other notable performances in game one included setter Jenifer Lauer's 31 assists and eight digs. Miranda Bacon had nine kills, seven digs and five blocks and libero Gabriela Morales notched seven digs off the bench.
In set one of match two, it looked as if the Firestorm did not take to the first match loss lightly. They had their cleanest set of the day with just four errors and hit .324 compared to the Bucs' .182.
Then, the Bucs flipped the tables back in their favor. They overcame nine errors (their highest total on the day) to win set two before dominating sets three and four. Lauer topped her game one totals with 35 assists and nine digs. Bacon notched a double-double (11 kills and 10 digs), while Busse and Autumn Wood had 11 and 10 kills respectively; Wood also had eight kills. Morales tied for a game-high in digs with 17.
The Bucs next scheduled matches are on March 25 and 26 against Pacific Union College, where they will have a chance to wrap up their season as th CalPac's regular season champions.
