The Stetson women's volleyball team took down Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, 3-0, Friday evening in the Edmunds Center.
"After two sets in a volleyball game, in the third set people usually keep fighting, so I told the team before the third set we have to stay on them," head coach Yang Deng said "obviously they showed the fast game at the beginning of the third set and were serving very well. But I am really proud of the team, especially the young ones playing. I told them we don't need to be this dramatic but at the same time, this experience will help us a lot. The connections in a tough time you can't practice those, they have to come from in games. It was a great game situation of how to dig deep and keep fighting."
The Hatters improved to 6-1 on the season, while Southern Illinois Edwardsville drops to 3-3 on the season.
"This solidifies us as a team," freshman middle blocker Sophia Groom said "Now we know we can do it, and this feels like the first game that I felt that all of us really played together. There wasn't confusion, we all knew our jobs and we went out and did it. Even in the third set when we were down, we came together and just felt like we had one big play and turned it around."
The first set was fairly even and was tied at seven until the home side ripped the set open with a 10-2 scoring run, giving the home side a 17-9 advantage. While the Cougars closed the gap, SU never looked back, taking the first set 25-20.
The momentum carried in the second set as the Hatters scored the first six points of set two. Keeping the momentum rolling, Stetson won the set by nine, 25-16, after scoring three of the last four points in the frame.
The breaks that the Hatters got in the second set all swung the other way in the third. SIUE jumped all over Stetson early, opening up an eight-point margin, 10-2 in favor of the visitors. The Cougars held the momentum, as the margin staying the same as the teams traded points, until the run started at 17-10. The home side roared to life, scoring six straight making it a one-point set as the squads approached the final stretch of the third set. The visiting side appeared to have weathered the Stetson storming comeback taking a 23-21 advantage, but the home side scored the final four points to claim the set, 25-23, and match, 3-0.
"It was like one play happened, then another play and another play, we just kept going," Groom said about the third set turn around. "Once we got a big kill, we went crazy and got more hyped as we went."
Stetson stats we very well rounded with four players recording six or more kills, but no player breaching double digits; Elena Djokovic and Anabelle Standish paced the team with nine each. Nyah Molina topped the stat sheet for the home side with 18 assists while Elif Yasar tallied 16. With 13 digs, Molina notched a double-double.
"Leilani [Vitale] was really out there tonight, pounding the ball," Groom said about her teammates' performance. "They blocked her and she'd go back up to hit it hard again. I thought we really needed that aggressiveness out there. Also, Nyah [Molina], she was out there non-stop. The endurance was crazy, she was doing everything. It was awesome."
Hatter women's volleyball returns tomorrow to complete the 2022 Stetson Invitational tournament facing Bethune-Cookman at 12:30 p.m., and Mercer following at 6 p.m.
Original source can be found here.
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