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FOUR GRIZZLIES were among the first team All-Region 16 Team honorees announced at the conclusion of the NJCAA Region 16 Championship Game Saturday afternoon. All first-team honorees gathered for this photo following the announcement. Front row from left, Cailey Bracken, Mineral Area College (MAC); and Kamryn Artale, Missouri State-West Plains. Back row: Jane Kickham and Pam Zuluaga, both of MAC; Kayla Juenger, Imani Williamson and Urte Neimantatite, all of Jefferson College; and Tatjana Trifkovic, Grace Stumbaugh and Keziah Williams, all of Missouri State-West Plains. (Photo provided)
FOUR GRIZZLIES were among the first team All-Region 16 Team honorees announced at the conclusion of the NJCAA Region 16 Championship Game Saturday afternoon. All first-team honorees gathered for this photo following the announcement. Front row from left, Cailey Bracken, Mineral Area College (MAC); and Kamryn Artale, Missouri State-West Plains. Back row: Jane Kickham and Pam Zuluaga, both of MAC; Kayla Juenger, Imani Williamson and Urte Neimantatite, all of Jefferson College; and Tatjana Trifkovic, Grace Stumbaugh and Keziah Williams, all of Missouri State-West Plains. (Photo provided)

Volleyball season comes to disappointing end for the Grizzlies

HILLSBORO, Mo. – “It’s been a season of missed opportunities.” That’s how Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Volleyball Head Coach Paula Wiedemann described this year’s campaign, which came to a disappointing end Friday, Oct. 27, with a first round loss in the NJCAA Region 16 Championship Tournament.

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HILLSBORO, Mo. – “It’s been a season of missed opportunities.”

That’s how Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Volleyball Head Coach Paula Wiedemann described this year’s campaign, which came to a disappointing end Friday, Oct. 27, with a first round loss in the NJCAA Region 16 Championship Tournament.

The Grizzlies fell to Jefferson College, host of the event, in Hillsboro 25-23, 22-25, 25-29, 20-25, 8-15 to finish with a 9-21 season record.

The Mineral Area College Cardinals of Park Hills, ranked eighth in the final NJCAA poll of the season, took home the Region 16 title Saturday afternoon with a straight set win over Jefferson 25-14, 25-18, 25-15.

FRUSTRATING END

For Wiedemann and the Grizzlies, Friday’s loss was a frustrating end to a frustrating season. “When you look at how we can play when people are paying attention to their court presence, their demeanor, what they’re giving their team when they’re on the court, we can be a very hard team to stop. But those moments were very few and very far between this season,” Wiedemann said.

Just like the season, the Grizzlies had positive moments during Friday’s game against the Vikings. In the first set, they battled back and forth with their opponent until they finally pulled out a win. But in the second set, they became too impatient and forced their play, which allowed the Vikings to come out on top.

The Grizzlies won the third set decisively, but the same issues that hampered their play in the second set hampered their play again in the fourth, and they were unable to recover in the fifth set.

“After we won the first set, I thought, ‘Okay, we’re here, we’re in this willing to fight it out,’ but the second set we just handed it to them. We got impatient, we forced things, stopped communicating on the court, and that created errors and a lack of trust,” Wiedemann said. “We responded well in the third set, but we couldn’t capitalize on it in the fourth. And the fifth, we just checked out.

“The lack of urgency when you are up 1-0 and 2-1 is unacceptable,” Wiedemann added. “It is frustrating watching it. The worst place to be as a team is on a roller coaster. When you know how well you can play when attitude, energy, effort and communication go into it, and then the hole created when you stop doing the things that work is hard to watch. There has to be a commitment and a change to the things that make the difference in teamwork.”

STATISTICAL LEADERS

Statistical leaders for the Grizzlies were freshman middle attacker Grace Stumbaugh, 21 kills, .444 attacking percentage and 22 points earned; redshirt freshman setter Kinli Simmons, 42 assists; redshirt freshman defensive specialist Elliotte Bourne, 2.50 passing rating; freshman middle attacker Keziah Williams, 3.5 blocks; and freshman libero Kamryn Artale, 14 digs.

FINAL WORDS

After the game ended, Wiedemann and Assistant Coach Briana Walsh talked to the players about the importance of learning something from the game and this season. “We told them how you handle these lessons will dictate what you do and whether or not you will grow or stay the same,” Wiedemann said. “The amount of effort and energy we, as coaches, poured into them to get them to do things the way they needed to be done didn’t match the effort they put forth.

“They need to learn to trust what we as a coaching staff are trying to do and understand they have to make changes to make things happen. Wen you have teams that commit to it, they make things happen, and that’s what this is all about. Every player who has done this has yet to say it wasn’t worth it,” she continued.

“What we do is all for them,” Wiedemann added. “Every moment we get out of it is tied to seeing teams commit to the process. Once they commit, it then changes what they can accomplish together. Literally, just watching them take what they learn throughout the season and using it, that’s where all of the moments become worth it. There is a price to pay for things, and that’s what they haven’t figured out yet.”

ALL-REGION 16 TEAM HONORS

Several Grizzlies received All-Region 16 Team honors after the tournament’s conclusion Saturday. They included first-team honorees Artale, Stumbaugh, freshman right side attacker Tatjana Trifkovic and Williams. Simmons and freshman middle attacker Koty Cooper received honorable mention accolades.

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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