WEST PLAINS, Mo. – The Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Volleyball team will host its first Region 16 match of the season at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16, when the Mineral Area College Cardinals from Park Hills, Missouri, come to town for a 6 p.m. contest in the Joe Paul Evans Arena at the West Plains Civic Center.
The match is being sponsored by Hirsch Feed and Farm Supply.
“This will be an important match,” Grizzly Volleyball Head Coach Paula Wiedemann said, explaining it will set the tone for the Grizzlies’ Region 16 efforts this season.
It also will give the Grizzlies the opportunity to pick up a much needed win after posting a 1-3 record at the College of Central Florida Invitational Tournament this past weekend in Ocala. The Grizzlies, now 5-8 on the season, fell to Miami Dade College, Miami, Florida, 17-25, 17-25, 16-25 then defeated Polk State College, Winter Haven, Florida, 25-12, 25-23, 23-25, 25-20 on Friday, Sept. 12. On Saturday, Sept. 13, they lost to the host team 26-28, 18-25, 18-25 and Indian River State College, Fort Pierce, Florida, 23-25, 21-25, 25-20, 25-22, 15-17.
“This was our first weekend with a new lineup after a roster change,” Wiedemann said, pointing to the loss of sophomore middle attacker Lee Lee Barrett, who is no longer enrolled at the university. “Adjusting to a new lineup takes time, but it also can be very positive. The struggles we went through, we know we can improve on them.”
One is aggressiveness by the hitters, the coach explained. “We still have some hitters who are too cautious, too afraid to make mistakes, and they need to learn to overcome those fears. They need to find a way to become more productive offensively. That takes commitment to coming in and working individually on the little things like movement and how that affects their ability to swing with confidence, which will make a big difference in their performance,” Wiedemann said.
Another is defense, she added. “To produce points offensively, we need to do it off our defense. We need to create balance defensively from game to game. We’re improving, but we need to make our blocks more solid. We also need to work on one-on-one defensive situations more,” Wiedemann said.
Still, there were several bright spots from the weekend. Freshman Penny Liu adjusted well to her new position as middle attacker and led the Grizzlies offensively with 44 kills off 81 attempts with nine errors for an attacking percentage of .432. Close behind was freshman outside hitter Gabby Edmondson, who had 33 kills off 66 attempts with eight errors for an attacking percentage of .378.
Freshman setter Susannah Kelley led the team in assists with 65, and she co-led the team in service aces with three. Sophomore outside attacker/defensive specialist Kaili Simmons and sophomore libero Alyssa Aldag also had three service aces each.
Defensively, Aldag led the Grizzlies in digs with 80, and Liu led the team in blocks with six, including three solo blocks. Liu also recorded the most points earned with 51.
“Penny did a good job of adjusting and playing the middle attacker position,” Wiedemann said. “Gabby had a solid weekend, too. She and Kaili did a good job digging the ball from the middle back position.” Edmondson had 46 digs for the tournament, and Simmons had 50.
Although they came out of the tournament with a losing record, the Grizzlies were able to see the strong competition coming out of the Florida region this season. “Miami Dade is doing things they haven’t done in years,” Wiedemann said. “They’re not relying on just one or two players. They’re spreading the wealth and working very well as a team.”
The coach also said the loss to Indian River didn’t sit well with the Grizzlies. “They were very unhappy – very mad, actually – because they let this one slip through their hands. Indian River just capitalized on a couple of extra opportunities in that last set,” she said.
The Grizzlies hope to use their opportunities this week in the gym to correct their errors and become more settled in their new lineup. “Now that our long road trips are over, it’s nice to know we will have some time in the gym to really work on improving the thibngs that will make a difference in individual play,” Wiedemann said.
For more information about the Grizzly Volleyball team, visit the team’s website at http://wp.missouristate.edu/grizzly/vb/. Complete team statistics can be found at http://stats.njcaa.org/sports/wvball/2014-15/div1/teams/MissouriStateUniversityWestPlains.