WEST PLAINS, Mo. – The Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Volleyball team will host Region 16 arch rival Jefferson College of Hillsboro at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10, at the West Plains Civic Center after posting a 2-2 record this past weekend at the Crystal Inn’vitational Tournament hosted by Salt Lake Community College in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“This is a big match Thursday against Jefferson, but any region match is big. Each game plays a factor in where you want to be at the end of the season,” Grizzly Volleyball Head Coach Paula Wiedemann said. “In addition, Jefferson is playing well right now.”
The Grizzlies (6-3) should be used to facing such teams after this past weekend. Of the eight teams competing at the Crystal Inn’vitational, five – including the Grizzlies, were nationally ranked.
“We know every year when we go other there, we’re going to have great matches, and we did,” Wiedemann said. “No one went undefeated. It was excellent competition across the board, and it gave us a very good feel for where we are and the things that need to happen for us to continue to improve as a team.
“This was a good weekend for us because we had to work through a bunch of things,” she continued. “We improved in some areas, which is important moving forward, and we struggled in some areas. It’s good to have those struggles now instead of later.”
On Friday, Sept. 4, the Grizzlies downed an unranked, but very competitive, North Idaho College, Coeur d’Alene, 25-12, 21-25, 25-15, 21-25, 15-8, before falling to No. 2 College of Southern Idaho, Twin Falls, 18-25, 25-18, 22-25, 27-25, 11-15. Saturday, the Grizzlies defeated No. 15 Snow College, Ephraim, Utah, 25-22, 25-13, 18-25, 25-23 before falling to the host team, ranked eighth, 22-25, 14-25, 27-25, 25-27.
“We struggled defensively on day one, but we figured some things out on day two,” Wiedemann said. “We forced our offense more this weekend, however, because the defenses were better, and that’s one of the little changes we will have to make. We have to learn to be more patient.”
The weekend also revealed some issues with team leadership. “There are leadership things that need to happen with this group, and some of the things we went through this weekend put that into perspective for them. I think they understand what we need from them in that area.”
Wiedemann did note a bright spot for the Grizzlies in the defensive play of freshman libero Autumn Reese. “It was one of the best defensive performances I’ve seen out of a player in a long time. She had 46 digs against Salt Lake and average 7.2 digs for the tournament. Her performance in the Salt Lake match was fantastic. Any kind of dig you can think of she probably had two or three of them. It was amazing to watch,” Wiedemann said. “Our block has improved, which allowed these things to happen, but her improvment throughout the tournament was funt to watch. It’s something our team can build on.”
Other tournament stastical leaders for the Grizzlies included sophomore outside attacker Pulotu Manoa, who had 63 kills on 150 attempts with 26 errors for an attacking percentage of .246 and 67 points earned; sophomore setter Susannah Kelley, who had 118 assists; sophomore middle attacker Ashley Bishton, who had 13.5 blocks, including six solo blocks; and Reese, who had four service aces and 130 digs.
Wiedemann hopes her team doesn’t become frustrated by these early losses. “You want them to understand these are lessons they can take and use. You don’t ever want them to stop learning from what the game is trying to teach them. You can go and take everything you learn at this time of the year, realizing these are the teams you will see at the end of the year,” she said.
Wiedemann encouraged everyone to come to Thursday’s match, which is being sponsored by The Fish Shack/The Pizza Shack.
For more information about the Grizzly Volleyball team, visit its website at http://wp.missouristate.edu/grizzly/vb/.