WEST PLAINS, Mo. – The Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Volleyball team upped its season record to 20-4 after winning all four games this past weekend at the Lazy W Pallets/Colton’s Steakhouse and Grill/City of West Plains/West Plains Civic Center Grizzly Invitational Tournament.
The fifth-ranked Grizzlies downed New Mexico Military Institute, Roswell, 25-13, 25-15, 23-25, 25-8 and No. 8 Jefferson College, Hillsboro, 25-17, 25-20, 22-25, 25-23 on Friday, Oct. 7, and Navarro College, Corsicana, Texas, 25-14, 25-12, 25-16, and Hutchinson Community College, Hutchinson, Kansas, 25-14, 25-19, 25-14 on Saturday, Oct. 8.
Grizzly Volleyball Head Coach Paula Wiedemann was pleased with the victories, pointing out they set the tone for their weekend with a good, solid win over New Mexico, a team they faced a week earlier at the Tyler Junior College Invitational in Tyler, Texas.
“Any time you play a team the week before, and they get a feel for you and you get a feel for them, you know you will need to make a few more adjustments. I thought we did a better job of handling their size this weekend than we did in Tyler. It was a good first game,” Wiedemann said.
Playing a rival like Jefferson also has its own set of adjustments. “Any rivalry game is good and has the potential of being really good, and although it went four sets, I felt like we were a little more comfortable on the court than when we defeated them in three on Sept. 20,” Wiedemann said. “There is always more intensity to the game against a region rival, especially when they are a top 10 team, so it was a good win.”
Saturday, the Grizzlies played well across the board, the coach said. “We really put some great things together, just in the way we played the game and how consistently we played. Whether in system or out of system, we did the right things, and that puts you in a position to do what we did against Navarro and Hutchinson,” she explained.
Wiedemann pointed out freshman outside hitter Catja Weijzen had 17 kills in the Hutchinson game, nearly half of which came off sophomore libero Autumn Reese’s second touches. “There were multiple times during the game when Autumn took the second contact on our side of the net, and she really made our hitters look great by putting the ball where they could take great swings,” the coach said.
Once again, the Grizzlies turned in a fairly balanced effort on offense in the tournament, with six players scoring in double figures in kills. Leading the way was Weijzen with 54, followed by freshman middle attacker Rachel Holthaus with 39, freshman outside hitter Adriana Darthuy with 33, sophomore outside hitter Stephanie Phillips with 30, freshman middle attacker Greer Rogers with 16 and sophomore setter Blanca Izquierdo with 11. Izquierdo led the team in assists with 153.
Defensively, Rogers led the team in blocks with nine, including four solo blocks, and Reese led the team in digs with 65. Izquierdo had a team-leading 12 service aces, and Weijzen led the team in points earned with 64.5.
“Blocking is such a huge, key component to our defense,” Wiedemann said. “As a team, I thought we did a much better job, not only with our block touches, but with our ability to play defense around our block. We try to emphasize to not get frustrated if we are not blocking the ball straight down as much as we would like to and knowing we are doing a good job by how many balls we pick up on defense. We need to continue focusing on getting better with that so we can continue to do good things defensively.”
Wiedemann thanked Grizzly fans for coming out and supporting the team this weekend. “The tournament always has a different feel to it, but we had a good crowd. We go to games all over the place at different levels, and I can’t say enough about how good of a fan base we have and how fun it is to play in front of the home crowd. They really support us. We have the best fans!,” she said.
She also pointed out it was a special weekend for the team because several family members were on hand to watch the team play, including Darthuy’s parents from France and Weijzen’s mother, sister and nephew from Holland. “It’s great when families can experience what their players experience here. It doesn’t happen often for our players from so far away, so it’s special when they do get to come. We always love to have families here to spend time with their players and with us,” Wiedemann said.
The Grizzlies have a tough road stretch coming up in the next week. On Wednesday, they will face Region 16 rival Mineral Area College in Park Hills, and Thursday, they will meet Jefferson for the third time this season, this time in Hillsboro. “It’s always hard to go 3-0 against any good team. You just make the target on your back bigger,” Wiedemann said.
Then, on Oct. 17, the Grizzlies will travel to Council Bluffs, Iowa, to face the No. 2 team in the nation, Iowa Western Community College.
“Two region games and two ranked teams. This is an important week to be playing well,” Wiedemann said. “At this point in time, if we can continue to build on how well we’re executing, we will be in a good position to do good things. This weekend gave us some confidence, that we can go out and play the way we know how to play.”
For more information about the Grizzly Volleyball team, visit its website.