Trailblazers win over Region rival ahead of regular season finale

ROBINSON, Ill. – The Vincennes University volleyball hit the road for the final time in the 2024 regular season Friday night as the Blazers made the short trip up to Robinson to face off against Region 24 rival Lincoln Trail College.

VU needed four sets but were able to come out on top of the host Statesmen 25-22, 25-12, 23-25, 25-17.

The Blazers got off to a quick start Friday night, building an early 10-5 advantage in set one.

Lincoln Trail would battle back to cut the VU lead down to one at 12-11 before VU opened a 15-11 lead over the Statesmen.

Lincoln Trail would again rally back in front of the home crowd, evening the score at 19-19 but were unable to capture the lead as VU grabbed the opening set of the night 25-22 to take an early 1-0 lead.

Vincennes rode this momentum into set two, using a big 6-0 scoring run to jump ahead 11-4 and later growing their lead to 18-8.

Lincoln Trail continued to battle but were unable to make a dent in the Vincennes lead as VU grabbed set two 25-12 and held a strong 2-0 match lead.

Set three was a very tightly contested set, with the largest lead for either team being just two points throughout the entire set.

Lincoln Trail was able to break away late with three straight points, which VU was unable to answer as the Statesmen avoid the sweep and take set three 25-23 and cut the Blazers match lead to 2-1.

Vincennes looked to bounce back strong in set four and got off to an excellent start by scoring the first four points of the set.

VU opened a commanding 18-10 advantage with the aid of two 3-0 scoring runs before trading points down the stretch with Lincoln Trail to take set four and the match 25-17 in four sets.

"This is always a tough place to play," VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. "We did execute pretty well in the first and second sets. Didn't really execute well at all in the third set. We had a lot of hitting errors and we missed a ton of digs. We missed serves in critical situations. Unofficially we had something like 14 kills in the first set, 17 kills in the second set and I don't even know if we got to 10 kills in the third set. It was more us not executing than them making plays against us."

"But it was a good rebound coming back in the fourth set and really getting back to how we were playing in the first two sets," Sien added. "We got back to executing on all part, defense, serving and offensively."

The VU offense was led by sophomores Isadora Dias (Rio Grande de Norte, Brazil) and Elisa Dalla Pozza (Vincenza, Italy).

Dias led the Blazers Friday night with 16 kills, three blocks and four digs, with Dalla Pozza adding 14 kills, seven blocks and five digs.

Sophomore Laura Tavares (Merida, Venezuela) had a good night at the net as well with seven kills, five blocks and two digs.

Sophomore Allison Czyzewski (Louisville, Ill.) added five kills, three blocks and one set assist, while freshman Paulina Fister (Tuszyn, Poland) came away with three kills, one ace and a team-high 18 digs.

Freshman Martyna Sadowska (Pila, Poland) rounded out the VU offensive numbers with one kill and a pair of blocks.

Sophomore setter Libby Mehringer (Jasper, Ind.) spread the ball out well all night with a team-high 24 set assists, five digs, two kills and one ace, while freshman setter Rylee Edwards (Fairfield, Ill.) added 19 set assists, six digs and one ace.

The VU back row defense was led by sophomore libero Grace Flexter (Oblong, Ill.) who added nine digs, three set assists and one ace and freshman Julianna Rettig (Antioch, Ill.) had a big night with 13 digs and one ace.

"Isadora was very efficient out there offensively," Sien said. "Offensively we were definitely led by Isadora and Elisa. I thought we played some pretty good defense too. Paulina had an excellent back row game, leading us in digs and as a hitter had a number of very good swings as well. I thought Paulina, Julianna and Isadora played great in the back row. We had over 30 digs from the middle back position as they were in great position to receive the ball. I thought our setters ran the middle attack overall pretty well."

"Serving wise, Rylee had some good serving runs, Paulina as well," Sien added. "Libby had some good scoring runs, which is pretty typical. We win when we are able to get those scoring runs and it could really be any one of our players that does it. Any of our players can go out there and serve it extremely well. I've said before that when you miss a serve, you are only stopping yourself."

"Blocking at times took over tonight and it really helped us win the fourth set," Sien said. "Elisa was in on a number of blocks. Laura had several blocks tonight."

The Trailblazers will return home to the Physical Education Complex tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 26 for the regular season finale of the 2024 fall season when VU hosts Kaskaskia College at 12 p.m. eastern.

This match will be 'Sophomore Recognition Day' as the Trailblazers will honor the careers of VU's seven sophomores. The 'Sophomore Recognition Day' festivities will take place before tomorrow's match begins.

"We're playing another good team tomorrow and no momentum from tonight is going to carry over into tomorrow," Sien said. "We are going to have to restart all over again and play as well as we did tonight overall. When we were on our execution on offense was very consistent and very good."

BOX SCORE

Lincoln Trail – 22   12   25   17   x

VUVB (26-12, 14-3) – 25   25   23   25   x

VINCENNES STATS

Grace Flexter – 1 point, 1 ace, 9 digs, 3 set assists

Paulina Fister – 4 points, 1 ace, 3 kills, 18 digs

Rylee Edwards – 1 point, 1 ace, 6 digs, 19 set assists

Julianna Rettig – 1 point, 1 ace, 13 digs

Laura Tavares – 9.5 points, 7 kills, 5 block assists, 2 digs

Isadora Dias – 17.5 points, 16 kills, 3 block assists, 4 digs

Allison Czyzewski – 6.5 points, 5 kills, 3 block assists, 1 set assist

Martyna Sadowska – 2 points, 1 kill, 2 block assists

Elisa Dalla Pozza – 17.5 points, 14 kills, 7 block assists, 5 digs

Libby Mehringer – 3 points, 1 ace, 2 kills, 5 digs, 24 set assists