GEORGETOWN - The second-ranked Southwestern Pirates bounced back from last night's tough loss and picked up a pair of wins on Saturday including a sweep of Schreiner followed by a huge come-from-behind five set win over Texas Lutheran.
In the opening match against the Mountaineers, the Pirates were domiannt while also emptying their bench in a 25-12, 25-10, 25-20 win to earn their first SCAC win of the season. SU hit a blistering .318 as a team including over .400 in the first two sets while Schreiner was held to .051.
Senior Piper Sisemore and sophomore Morgan Giplin paced SU with five kills a piece for an easy first set win while the team followed that up with a huge second set for the dominating lead.
With mostly reserves in, Southwestern finished off Schreiner for the sweep as they prepared to wrap up Pool A play with the always scrappy Bulldogs of TLU.
"It so vital to see this team grow and reach toward new things as we started day two of conference," said Head Coach Don Flora. "Having nine attackers hit over .200 and five of those attackers hitting over .400 was a clear sign of some quality decision making and that Megan Grimes was putting attackers is good situations, and at the same time Brandi Campos averaged over 7 digs a set, which made for some great transition opportunities for our attackers."
Against the Bulldogs, the Pirates fell behind 1-0 and 2-1, but were able to come back each time to tie the match before getting the win in the fifth set. Southwestern hit .229 as a team despite a great defensive effort from a game TLU squad. The Bulldogs hit .233 on the afternoon.
Junior Megan Grimes was unreal all afternoon on the court as she came up big for the Pirates.
Texas Lutheran took an exciting first set, 25-22, before Southwestern responded with a great second set, winning 25-19. The Bulldogs moved ahead 25-21 and put all the pressure on the Pirates to end the match in four, taking a 22-21 lead late in the set.
However, a pair of kills from senior Kate Mitchell, including the kill that clinched the set, gave SU a 25-23 win and forced a fifth set.
From there, the trio of Mitchell, Sisemore, and junior Jamison Duck took over the fifth set, along with Grimes. Behind a raucous home crowd, the Pirates used an incredible rally of five straight points to pull away and take the 15-10 win to move to 14-1 overall and 2-1 in SCAC play.
"In our evening battle with a highly intense and solid defensive team in TLU, we gutted out a valuable conference victory," said Coach Flora. "Kate Mitchell, Jamison Duck, Piper Sisemore along with Megan Grimes all were in double digit kills. This shows we can balance our offense and make other teams blocking priorities difficult. Megan Grimes continues to show why her high athletic talent has helped her take control of the offense this season."
Grimes finished with a triple-double, going for 14 kills, 14 digs, and 50 assists. Mitchell led the attack with 16 kills while Duck added 15 and Sisemore added 10. Junior Brandi Campos had 27 digs while Duck had 23. Duck also had three service aces while Sisemore had three blocks.
"These types of intense matches are exactly what this team looks forward to in playing elite college volleyball," added Flora. "Now we need to get to work and clean up a few areas in our systems."
The Pirates will prepare for a midweek away match on Tuesday as they will take on Our Lady of the Lake at 6 PM.
Match point from the thrilling five set win for @SUPiratesVB over TLU! Thank you to the Pirate fans for an awesome atmosphere all weekend! pic.twitter.com/CHkWxmyk0y
