WEST PLAINS, Mo. – The Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Volleyball team turned in one of its best performances of the year this past weekend at the Colton’s Steak House and Grill/Lazy W Pallets Grizzly Invitational.
The Grizzlies won all four matches in the tournament, only dropping two sets total in the two-day event and defeating the nation’s fifth and 17th ranked junior college teams along the way. Their record now stands at 16-12.
The Grizzlies opened the tournament Friday afternoon with a 25-16, 25-18, 25-10 win over Colby (Kansas) Community College and followed it up Friday evening with a 25-17, 23-25, 25-11, 26-24 victory over No. 17 Hutchinson (Kansas) Community College. On Saturday, they defeated Wallace State Community College of Hanceville, Alabama, 25-17, 25-21, 25-15, then beat No. 5 Miami Dade College of Miami, Florida, 30-28, 12-15, 25-22, 26-24 in a hard-fought contest.
“The entire team played phenomenally this weekend – absolutely amazing,” Grizzly Volleyball Head Coach Paula Wiedemann said. “They were on the same page and continue to look at each other with confidence. They didn’t let the small things affect them. They’re playing with a passion they’ve found inside themselves, and it’s really fun to watch.”
The Colby match showed Wiedemann her players were continuing to “play on the same page” as they had the weekend before in Tyler, Texas, where they defeated another nationally-ranked team, Western Nebraska Community College of Scottsbluff, in a five-set thriller.
“We were pretty much in control the whole match,” Wiedemann said of her team’s efforts against Colby. “After we went up 2-0 in the third set, we gave them no room to come back.”
The Grizzlies expected a tougher match against Hutchinson, which had lost earlier in the day to Wallace State. “When you have an opponent that’s lost a close match, you know they’re going to be ready to play. Hutch is a big team, and their middle attackers are a little unorthodox in the way they run their offense. But there were certain tendencies we picked up on, and we took those into consideration in our game plan, which we implemented very well. I really liked the way we had to battle it out in the fourth set for the win. We responded very well.”
After having seen Wallace State defeat Hutchinson on Friday, the Grizzlies knew they had their hands full with the team on Saturday. But once again, they had a game plan that proved fruitful. “Wallace State is athletic, has good ball control and plays really good defense, but offensively, we were on fire. We hit .452 as team,” Wiedemann said.
As expected, the Miami match Saturday evening proved to be a battle. After winning a hard-fought first set 30-28, the Grizzlies got stuck in a rotation that allowed the Sharks to take the second set fairly easily. But the Grizzlies fought hard and bounced back to finish off the match, realizing they could play with the No. 5 team in the nation.
“We want a team that will live for these types of matches, and that’s what we saw Saturday,” Wiedemann said. “Even though we dropped the second set, we responded and took another punch at them and kept swinging. We came back out and took care of what we needed to do to finish off the match. When players respond like that, it’s a lot of fun to see what might happen against great teams. Our crowd was amazing, and we were so happy to give them something great and entertaining to watch.”
Freshman outside attacker Gabby Edmondson had one of her best outings of the year. She recorded 41 kills on 91 attempts with 12 errors for an attacking percentage of .319. She also had one block, three service aces, 48 digs and 45 points earned. “Gabby took great swings, took care of the ball and dug the ball well. She had an incredible weekend,” Wiedemann.
Offensively, freshman middle attacker Penny Liu paced the Grizzlies with 67 kills on 112 attempts with 11 errors for an attacking percentage of .500. She also led the team in total blocks with 7.5, solo blocks with four, service aces with five and points earned with 79.5. “Penny was phenomenal,” the coach said.
Freshman setter Susannah Kelley led the team in assists with 149, and sophomore libero Alyssa Aldag led the team in digs with 68.
Wiedemann said she and the Grizzlies would like to thank Colton’s Steak House and Grill and Lazy W Pallets for sponsoring the match. “Because of their support, we can host tournaments that feature some of the best teams in the nation,” she said.
The Grizzlies face two big Region 16 contests this week on the road. They will play Mineral Area College at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, in Park Hills, Missouri, then face Jefferson College at 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17, in Hillsboro, Missouri.
“This is where we have to take advantage of these opportunities to set ourselves up for the Region 16 tournament,” Wiedemann said. “These two matches are important for what we want to accomplish. We are going to have to continue building on what we’ve already developed together as a team.”
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.