VUVB makes a statement with sweep of Lincoln Trail in home opener

VINCENNES, Ind. – The 2021 Vincennes University volleyball team began their season in strong fashion by picking up a sweep against Lincoln Trail in VU's first regular-season home match since Oct. 30, 2019.

The Trailblazers got off to a hot start in set one, building an early 5-2 lead, before closing out the first set of the season with a 25-13 win.

Lincoln Trail battled in the second set, taking the lead at 8-7 before Vincennes would completely shift momentum by taking 10 of the next 12 points.

VU would close out set two by the score of 25-16.

The Statesmen were not going to go away quietly though, as set three was a well contested back-and-forth battle, that saw Lincoln Trail take the lead late 19-18.

Vincennes would battle back however, only allowing Lincoln Trail to score two more points as VU earned their first win of the season with a 25-21 finish and a 3-0 match sweep.

"Lincoln Trail is at times a scary team to play, they can serve tough and they're scrappy, so if you don't put the ball down right away against them you can make a mistake and lose a rally," VU head coach Gary Sien said. "I thought everything really came together in the second set. We had a lot of transition kills, good passes and out of the three sets, I thought we played the most consistent in the second."

"When we played Lincoln Trail last year we jumped on them early, got up 2-0 and they came back and we had to win in the fifth set. Early in the third set tonight it looked like that might happen again," Sien added. "I have to give a lot of credit to Allyson Kuhl for coming in and swinging aggressively. Having four kills, hitting .500 and getting a block, she did a really nice job of coming in and giving us a spark."

The Trailblazers were led in kills by the freshman duo of Jamie Russell and Emile Cornelson with seven each. Sophomore Olga Vasovic led the way serving up four aces for VU along with fellow sophomore setter Savannah Grimes who helped set up the Blazer offense with 25 set assists.

"Olga has a really nice serve and really nice location. Our philosophy is to pick on certain passers and it's really nice to have servers like her," Sien said. "I believe everyone on this team can do that. I believe all our servers can serve accurately and allow us to go on runs."

"Savannah is just so athletic; she knows how to run our offense. You have to be pretty intelligent to remember all of those plays and we feel so comfortable in giving her that responsibility," Sien added. "We normally don't do that or run play sets if we don't feel like the setter is capable of doing it but she just plays at such a high level of intelligence that she's able to know what to run. Yes, the hitters get the kills, but it has to start with a good set and that's what she does for us."

Vincennes will hit the court again this Sunday Jan. 24, as the Blazers host Jefferson College and Parkland College in a tri-match. VU will take on Jefferson at 1 p.m. eastern, followed by Jefferson vs. Parkland at 3 p.m. and VU vs. Parkland at 5 p.m.

"We are going to have to be able to side out Sunday because these two teams are at a very high level coming in," Sien said. "If they get a side out we have to make sure we get one back because if we let them go on runs, these teams can really take it to us. These matches could be back-and-forth, so we have to have a short memory. If they score on us, we have to be able to go right back and score on them. So we'll be able to see early in the season if we have that type of team."

LTC  13  16  21  x  x

VU (1-0)  25  25  25  x  x

VINCENNES STATS

Kacee Nicholson – 6 digs

Savannah Grimes – 3 points, 3 kills, 2 digs, 25 set assists

Amee Beedle – 4 points, 4 kills, 9 digs

Emile Cornelson – 7.5 points, 7 kills, 1 block assist

Anna Johnsey – 6.5 points, 1 ace, 4 kills, 1 solo block, 1 block assist, 5 digs, 1 set assist

Allyson Kuhl – 5.5 points, 4 kills, 1 solo block, 1 block assist, 1 dig

Jamie Russell – 7.5 points, 7 kills, 1 block assist

Grace Earp – 10 digs

Elizabeth Combs – 5.5 points, 5 kills, 1 block assist, 3 digs

Olga Vasovic – 4 points, 4 aces, 1 dig