Trailblazers open busy weekend with Region 24 sweep over Frontier C.C.

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University volleyball team faces another packed weekend of games this weekend as the Blazers open Friday night with a Region 24 showdown against Frontier Community College.

The Blazers came away with the convincing sweep over the Bobcats 25-7, 25-15, 25-16 inside the Physical Education Complex.

Vincennes opened the match with a very strong opening set, building an early lead with a trio of 3-0 scoring runs before putting the set away by outscoring Frontier C.C. 13-1 to take set one 25-7 and gain the early 1-0 match lead.

Set two was more of a back-and-forth battle at the start, with VU able to break away with another set of three 3-0 scoring runs giving VU an 18-11 advantage.

Vincennes continued to cruise through the second set, closing out the set 25-15 and taking a 2-0 lead in the match.

Looking to complete the sweep, the Trailblazers opened up a quick 8-3 lead, later getting the lead to double digits at 17-7 midway through the set.

Frontier would continue to battle down the stretch but were unable to put together a big scoring run to close the margin as VU took set three and the match 25-16.

"Our schedule this year is probably the toughest I've had since I've been here," VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. "Every Tuesday playing on the road, so we don't get to play at home until the weekends. I give a lot of credit to our team for hanging in there. It's a lot of wear and tear to be on the road like that all the time. Combining the travel with their studies during the week, they have done a nice job of balancing everything."

"As for tonight, every game for us is going to be big," Sien added. "Our goal was to be competitive and play them with respect. We were treating them like we would any other opponent. We weren't going to go out there and just go through the motions. We were going to play them hard, score points and get it done."

"I do appreciate that the team did that tonight," Sien said. "We were pretty much on task about 100 percent of the time. They didn't have too many runs on us and we were able to put together some big runs.  It was a good overall effort out there. We executed pretty well. We rarely made mistakes but we were able to get the ball right back so they didn't hurt us too much. But that's really what we wanted. We wanted to end it, get our rest and be ready for tomorrow's matches."

The VU offense was led by sophomore Elisa Dalla Pozza (Vincenza, Italy) who had a big all-around game with 10 kills on a .600 hitting percentage, five aces, two blocks, two set assists and one dig.

Sophomore Isadora Dias (Rio Grande de Norte, Brazil) and freshman Martyna Sadowska (Pila, Poland) each finished the night with seven kills, with Dias adding a team-high nine digs and one set assist and Sadowska adding one block.

Sophomore Laura Tavares (Merida, Venezuela) came away with six kills, one block, one ace and one dig, while freshman Paulina Fister (Tuszyn, Poland) recorded four kills, three digs, one ace and one set assist.

Sophomore Allison Czyzewski (Louisville, Ill.) finished the match with three kills and two blocks, while freshman Karen Kodi (West Carrollton, Ohio) entered in the third set and recorded one kill.

Sophomore setter Libby Mehringer (Jasper, Ind.) ran the Trailblazer offense to a team-high 15 set assists, along with eight kills, four digs, two aces and one block.

Sophomore setter Dylan DeCoursey (Montgomery, Ind.) finished with 13 set assists and four digs, while freshman setter Rylee Edwards (Fairfield, Ill.) recorded five set assists and one dig.

Sophomore libero Grace Flexter (Oblong, Ill.) returned to the VU lineup and controlled the back row defense on her way to six digs, five set assists and one ace.

Freshmen Julianna Rettig (Antioch, Ill.) and Ashley Earp (Mattoon, Ill.) rounded out the VU box score with Rettig finishing with four digs and Earp coming away with three digs on the night.

"If we are in system and are able to get Elisa a good set, it could be anywhere on the net, she's always going to have a really good swing and rarely, if ever, errors," Sien said. "Having that combination, she's going to get kills. On the season she's hitting about .360. If you're hitting above .300 as a middle, you are definitely next level. Not only the kills, but she also contributes in her serving and tonight we had a couple of nice runs with her serving. She's definitely one of the better middles in the Region."

"In our Region you don't see too often see a lefty that swings as quick as Libby," Sien added. "These last two years we've known that we have her hitting as an option if we need it. She swings well and when the blocker has to go to their left, a lot of blockers are not left handed, so a lot of times they are going to be a little slower going to their left. So us running the ball to Libby on the right side, you can typically get a little bit slower of a block. We definitely wanted her to bring more offense out there and she definitely contributed."

"I thought Martyna hit pretty well tonight too," Sien said. "We just wanted to take as much pressure off of our outsides as possible. They swing at the ball so many times every match that if we are able to get a little more balance in the other positions, we could be a much better team. That way opposing defense won't know where the ball is going when we have three options out there."

"I thought our setters did a nice job of distributing the ball," Sien added. "There may have been a few times tonight when we misconnected but we were able to get it back the very next play. Overall, this was just a well all-around match. We executed pretty well to help make this as short a night as possible."

The Trailblazers will continue their busy weekend slate of games tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 19 when VU returns to the P.E. Complex floor for a Region 24 tri-match with Lake Land College and Southeastern Illinois College.

Vincennes will open the day with a battle against Lake Land College at 10 a.m. eastern before closing out the weekend against Southeastern Illinois College at 2 p.m. eastern.

"We need to stay balanced in our offense," Sien said. "That would of course mean good passing as well. Passing on point so our setters can have all three options available. That's something that we have that not every team in the Region does, we could have multiple hitters and it could be different hitters putting up big numbers from match to match."

"We want to stay balanced in our offense so we are not just getting the same two hitters 30 or 40 sets per match," Sien added. "We say that every game is big for us, so tomorrow should be just another game. No matter what the implications are for seeding or any of that. The way we treated tonight's game is really where we want it. The team did a really nice job of being on task and not having any prolonged rough patches."

BOX SCORE

Frontier – 7   15   16   x   x

VUVB (23-11, 11-2) – 25   25   25   x   x

VINCENNES STATS

Grace Flexter – 1 point, 1 ace, 6 digs, 5 set assists

Paulina Fister – 5 points, 1 ace, 4 kills, 3 digs, 1 set assist

Rylee Edwards – 1 dig, 5 set assists

Dylan DeCoursey – 4 digs, 13 set assists

Julianna Rettig – 4 digs

Laura Tavares – 7.5 points, 1 ace, 6 kills, 1 block assist, 1 dig

Isadora Dias – 7 points, 7 kills, 9 digs, 1 set assist

Allison Czyzewski – 4 points, 3 kills, 2 block assists

Ashley Earp – 3 digs

Martyna Sadowska – 7.5 points, 7 kills, 1 block assist

Elisa Dalla Pozza – 16.5 points, 5 aces, 10 kills, 1 solo block, 1 block assist, 1 dig, 2 set assists

Karen Kodi – 1 point, 1 kill

Libby Mehringer – 10.5 points, 2 aces, 8 kills, 1 block assist, 4 digs, 15 set assists