Despite losses early on in the season, volleyball head coach Sarah Davis is not concerned. According to her, the team is striving for something bigger this season.
The Fighting Scots volleyball team opened its season with a disapointing 1-4 record, with losses to Heidelberg University, Ohio Northern University and Thomas More, and a sole win against Defiance College.
According to Davis, she scheduled three nationally-ranked and one regionally-ranked team in the first five games of the season “so that we would see the level we need to play at if we want to become a nationally ranked program.† We had some really great moments of volleyball this weekend and we’re back in the gym working on stringing those moments together for a full match.† I’m not really concerned about our wins and losses at this point.”
The Scots lost their home opener (25-22, 25-15, 25-16) against Heidelberg University (1-0) last Wednesday, despite an early lead.† Wooster opened strong with contributions from Paige Parker ’14, whose kill gave Wooster an early lead of five (9-4).† Heidelberg went on its own run and the teams remained tied at 9-9 through 17-17 when Heidelberg began to pull away from Wooster.
After the loss in the first set, the Scots were unable to overcome Heidelberg’s attack unit, losing the second and the third sets.† Wooster was able to come back from a six-point deficit in the third set to come within one -point of Heidelberg on two occasions (12-11, 13-12).
Parker led Wooster statistically with seven kills, 11 digs and one block in her first Div. III collegiate game.† Erin Webster ’14 had five kills, 11 digs and Lizzi Beal ’12 had a team-high of 16 assists.
The Scots traveled to the Ohio Northern University Invitational in Ada, Ohio last Saturday where they fell to Ohio Northern (25-15, 25-23, 25-16) but recorded their first win against Defiance College in four sets (25-19, 25-17, 25-20, 27-25).
After the first loss in the tournament to Ohio Northern, Wooster was able to overcome Defiance with strong serves from Beal.† Webster was a strong leader for the hitters with 10 kills and 13 digs, and Sarah Hawke ’12 added seven kills.† Kelley Johnson ’13 recorded 22 digs and Zoe Zwegat ’14 had six blocks against Ohio Northern and another five against Defiance on the day.
The Scots fell once again to Heidelberg (25-18, 25-20, 25-23) in the second day of play and lost to Thomas More (25-7, 25-14, 25-21), despite competitive runs in each match.† In the third set against Heidelberg, Margaret Raabe ’12 served seven straight points to bring Wooster within two of its opponents (24-22).† Meredith Kiefer ’12 and Devin Grandi ’13 led a five-point run in the third set of the second match to tie Thomas More 19-19.
Following the team’s performance in its first five games, Davis said, “I’m not concerned about 1-4, we beat the team we were expected to beat and played well against the NCAA qualifiers.† Wins and losses in the early season are not important, the level of volleyball we are playing is what’s important.”
The Fighting Scots will travel to Brea, Ohio today to compete in the Marcia French Memorial Tournament where they will face Fransiscan College and Baldwin-Wallace University.† On Saturday, Wooster will play John Carroll University and Case Western Reserve at the Case Western Reserve Tournament in Cleveland, Ohio.† Because these are all non-conference matches, so they will not affect the Scots’ standings in the NCAC.
Davis said she hopes to see her team “play with confidence [this weekend] and aren’t afraid to be aggressive. We keep saying if we start beating up on the other teams as hard as we beat up each other playing against each other in practices we will be just fine.”
According to Davis, as the season progresses, “We expect to extend our three-year run as one of the top four teams in the conference and qualifying for the conference tournament.† Our young team will need to continue to grow and we will need some great leaders to emerge on the floor.”