Volleyball ends homestand a perfect 2-0
Ocotober 01, 2008
Marcus Johnson
Sports Writer
Photo by David Clary |
After a 15 game road schedule, the Prairie Stars volleyball team finally opened up their home schedule at TRAC with back-to-back wins. Saturday afternoon, after defeating Stephens College the night before 3-0, the team returned to action to defeat the William Woods Owls in three straight games.
“[The team] played well this afternoon,” Head Coach Joe Fisher said. “We made sure we played a tough road schedule so we would be ready for our conference and home schedule.”
The team survived against a scrappy Owls team that twice pushed the Prairie Stars to extra points in two games.
During the first game of the match against the Owls, the two teams continued to go back and forth scoring points against each other. The Prairie Stars started out with a 12-7 lead. The Owls continued to pace the Stars by tying the game up at 12-12. UIS then went on a run to distance themselves from the Owls, increasing the score to 19-12. The two teams continued to battle it out with continuous ties from there on out. The Prairie Stars then pulled out the win 28-26
Game two was similar to the first one with back-and-forth scoring for both teams. The Owls dove for spikes smashed by the UIS hitters, attempting to sneak a win out of TRAC with hustle and grit. They also showed excellent passing attempts during this game. The Prairie Stars, however, went on to win this game 25-18, with the offense rolling with a .203 kill percent for the entire match.
After winning two straight games, Fisher was ready to win the third and, as he put it, “Get out of there.” But William Woods had other plans. The Owls opened up game three with a commanding 10-4 early lead before Fisher called timeout.
“It was all a matter of refocusing,” Fisher explained about his use of the timeout.
He kept the same six players out on the court and UIS started mounting comeback. They eventually took the lead 20-19. From then on they never looked back, winning the game 28-26.
Kim Bartosiak led the Prairie Stars with 13 kills and also chipped in with 13 digs on the defensive side. Tori McColez had a game high 39 assist to go along with 7 digs and 3 kills. Carrie Gerberding had her career high in digs with 17.
With the win, the Prairie Stars improve to 7-10 overall with a 3-2 AMC conference record. William Woods falls to 5-10 and 3-2 overall in conference.
The Prairie Stars travel to Lindenwood next to play in the Lindenwood University Tournament on Oct. 3.
See the Photo Essay for this game here
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