WEST PLAINS, Mo. – The Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Volleyball team ended its regular season Tuesday evening on a positive note, defeating East Central College from Union 25-19, 25-14, 25-16 in Joe Paul Evans Arena at the West Plains Civic Center.
The win gives the Grizzlies a 9-20 record going into this weekend’s NJCAA Region 16 Championship Tournament at Jefferson College in Hillsboro. The Grizzlies will face the host team at 6:30 p.m. Friday. The winner will face the Mineral Area College Cardinals from Park Hills at noon Saturday. The Cardinals were ranked eighth in the final NJCAA poll of the season.
A GOOD WAY TO END REGULAR SEASON
Although not perfect, Tuesday’s Missouri Community College Athletic Conference (MCCAC) win was a good way to end the regular season, Grizzly Volleyball Head Coach Paula Wiedemann said. “We made too many unforced errors, but we took advantage of the things we needed to,” she said.
The Grizzlies committed several hitting, blocking and serving errors that kept them from playing as well as they had this past weekend at the Jefferson College Halloween Classic, the coach said. “Sometimes you slow down with the speed of the game, and that’s never a good thing,” she explained.
Still, the Grizzlies were able to find ways to win points. “Offensively, we did what we needed to do after the first set, and we fed the middle,” Wiedemann said. “In the third set, Grace (Stumbaugh) had seven straight kills, and Keziah (Williams) had four. And, Tatjana (Trifkovic) had a lot of kills early because we were feeding her the ball.”
STATISTICAL LEADERS
For the game, Stumbaugh, a freshman middle attacker, had a team leading 13 kills, .632 attacking percentage and three blocks. Freshman outside attacker Koty Cooper led the team in digs with nine and passing rating with 2.60. Freshman outside attacker Karolina Noszczyk led the team in service aces with two, and redshirt freshman setter Kinli Simmons led the team in assists with 37.
“I really hope the past couple of weeks have given our players a sense that they can accomplish a lot if they go into games with the right mindset, energy and effort,” Wiedemann said. “I want them to play games knowing that, at the end, they’ve left it all on the floor.”
FAN APPRECIATION
Many Grizzly fans, including students, attended the game and provided a great atmosphere in which to close out the regular season, Wiedemann said. In addition, she thanked The Fish Shack and The Pizza Shack for sponsoring the game.
“The support of the campus community and the West Plains community as a whole has been phenomenal,” the coach said. “It’s a blessing to be part of such a great place.”
For more information about the Grizzly Volleyball team, visit www.wp.missouristate.edu/grizzly/vb/. For complete statistics of the Grizzlies’ games, visit http://www.njcaa.org/sports/wvball/2017-18/div1/teams/missouristateuniversitywestplains.
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