The Park University Gilbert volleyball team doesn't like to make it easy on themselves. For the second time in three days, the Buccaneers pulled out a come from behind five set win. This time it was a 21-25, 25-18, 19-25, 25-17, 15-11 triumph over Westcliff University on Saturday afternoon at the Jordan Lowery Facility in Irvine, Calif. With the win, the Bucs have now won 15 straight Cal Pac matches dating back to last year.
"The girls worked extremely hard, listened to the scouting report and executed when it mattered most," said Buccaneers head coach Clay Webb. "I'm really happy with how we handled adversity and were able to walk away with a "W" versus a very talented team."
The Buccaneers, (4-3, 3-0 Cal Pac) who played this weekend without three of their usual starters, jumped out quickly in set 1, 3-0 before the Warriors (3-6, 1-2) started a slow methodical march back into the set. The Warriors had 14 kills in the set to only eight for the Buccaneers. The Bucs also committed seven attack errors which led to the collapse.
Set two saw a reversal of the kill totals as Park Gilbert put 14 kills away to only nine for WU. The Bucs also improved their hitting percentage from a paltry .026 in set one to a gaudy .321 in the second stanza. The result was an impressive 25-18 win to knot the contest at 1-1.
Set three saw the see saw battle continue as WU and Park Gilbert went back and forth in the set. With the Bucs leading 15-14, the Warriors went on an 11-4 run (with eight kills) to take the set. The Warriors had 13 kills for the set and hit .256. The Bucs percentage dropped to .108 with only nine kills and five errors in the set.
The Buccaneers have been in this situation three other times this year. Down two sets to one and needing two win the final two sets to pull out the match. So far this year the Bucs were 2-1 in this scenario. The fourth set saw the Buccos start to assert their dominance in the match. A 13-5 run early in the frame after the score was tied at 3-3 set the tone and Park Gilbert never looked back. The Bucs had 16 kills (.294 pct.) in the set through a total team effort. Six different Bucs had kills in the set, with five of them having multiple putaways.
Having knotted the match at 2-2, set five was going to come down to which team was going to play as they did in the sets they won earlier in the match from the start. The answer was the Buccaneers. A fifth set, which is only played to 15, is a sprint in rally scoring compared to the marathon sets of frames 1-4 which go to 25. With the score tied at four-all, setter Melissa Blockey dumped a second touch ball on the Warriors side and the Buccaneers were off and running on a 9-4 run that gave the Bucs a 13-8 advantage and a stranglehold on the match. Match point was put down by Miranda Bacon, her 12th kill of the afternoon. and the second match in row she put away the finisher for the Buccaneers.
Bacon had a double-double with 10 digs to go along with her 12 kills, plus three blocks (one solo). Freshman Amanda Jonovich led the team with 19 kills and added 11 digs for her fourth double-double on the season. She also tied a school record with six aces. Senior middle blockers Kayla Wieserman and Elizabeth Clemit had 11 and five kills respectively and hit a combined .438. Wieserman added six digs and Clemit totaled six blocks (3 solo). Libero Hattie Patton led the team with 16 digs. Blockey, stepping in again for the injured Jenifer Lauer had 40 assists to go along with three kills with no errors, an ace and a solo block.
The Bucs are in a tie for first in the Arizona Division of the Cal Pac Conference with Embry Riddle who also swept the same three teams as the Bucs this weekend. Up next, Park Gilbert will take on Benedictine-Mesa on Tuesday, Sept. 21 at the Arizona Region Facility starting at 6 p.m. Then the Bucs travel to Prescott, Ariz. for a testing road match with Embry Riddle who is receiving votes in the latest top 25 poll.
