The Southwestern Volleyball team faced a tough slate of competition this weekend in the Trinity Invitational. Southwestern's three-game schedule consisted of #2 ranked Juniata who made it all the way to the NCAA Semi-Finals in 2021, a La Verne team that Coach Don Flora once brought a national championship, and University of Scranton, who also made the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
The Pirates didn't notch a victory in the win column this weekend, however, there was cause for celebration as senior outside-hitter Emma White eclipsed the 1000 dig mark in her career, ending this weekend with 1018 total digs.
In the first match of the weekend against #2 ranked Juniata, the Pirates showed that they were there to compete, right out of the gate. The Pirates were tied with Juniata at 11-11 midway through the first set, but a 9-3 scoring run for the Eagles put the Pirates down 14-20 and the Eagles were able to close it out the set 19-25. Southwestern was undeterred and they came right back and won the next two sets 26-24 and 28-26, respectively.
However, the Eagles wouldn't go away, winning the fourth set by a large margin of 14-24, forcing the Pirates to a fifth set.
"There are times when two elite teams go to battle and that's exactly what this match was…a battle. Being up 2-1 on the #2 team in the country and leading 8-7 in the fifth set shows that Southwestern Volleyball can play against anyone. But the margins are slim in these types of games, one dig here or an ace there, and the match can change," explains Coach Don Flora.
Southwestern would lose the final set, 10-15, but two sophomores had career games against Juniata. Christina Kuras earned a career-high 18 kills as well as a career-high 15 digs, and Geneva Nedrow left it all on the floor defensively, reaching a career-high 26 digs in the match.
In the second game of the Trinity Invite, Coach Flora and the Pirates took on his former team, the University of La Verne Leopards. The Pirates took the Leopards into extra points in the first set but ultimately gave up a 26-24 win for the Leopards. Southwestern rebounded in explosive fashion, winning set two by a fifteen-point margin of 25-10.
It was the Leopards that were able to grind out two more sets to finish off the Pirates, winning sets 3 and 4 by duplicate scores of 20-25 and 20-25.
"We give credit to ULV, our match had numerous ebbs and flows and we need to do a better job of competing from point to point. Our numbers are good, but we need to learn how to prepare for the demands of big matches both physically and emotionally," says Coach Flora.
The final match of the invite was the third time this season the Pirates would take a team to five sets. Needless to say, the past two weeks have been a grind for Southwestern Volleyball. In their contest against the University of Scranton, three of the five sets were decided by four points or less and the fifth set ultimately being won by Scranton, 19-17.
Even though the Pirates fall to 3-6 following the weekend, the schedule Coach Flora prepared for his team to start out the season will give the Pirates an edge heading into the conference.
The Pirates open up conference play against Texas Lutheran University and the University of St. Thomas on Saturday, September 25th at 3:00 PM and 6:00 PM.
Photo by Carlos Barron