VUVB picks up pair of wins in Saturday tri-match, extends winning streak to four

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Trailblazers picked up a pair of wins Saturday afternoon over East Central College 25-15, 25-22, 25-15 and Henry Ford Community College 25-14, 25-15, 25-9.

VU extends their winning streak to four matches and have won 12-straight sets.

The Trailblazers found themselves in a battle early against East Central, with the score set at 15-12 midway through the opening set.

Vincennes would rally late however to take the first set of the day 25-15 over the Falcons.

East Central bounced back in the second set and opened a sizable lead over VU, holding an 18-10 advantage at one point.

The Blazers would again rally to finish the set on a 15-4 scoring run to take set two 25-22 and hold a commanding 2-0 match lead.

VU continued their scoring run into set three, jumping out to a 10-3 lead early, before East Central closed the margin to 11-8.

Vincennes answered back to take the set and the match over East Central 25-15.

"We really put ourselves in a hole in the second set, we really just stopped playing for a bit," VUVB head coach Gary Sien said. "But in that moment I was just really impressed with how we rebounded. That was a great effort by the entire team to play together."

VU was led offensively by freshman Jagoda Szybinska (Poznan, Poland), who finished with a team-high 11 kills and a .500 hitting percentage.

The Blazers got seven kills from Addison Ainscough (Cannelburg, Ind.) and six kills each from sophomores Emilie Cornelson (Saskatoon, Canada), Breanna Metzger (Dale, Ind.) and Jamie Russell (East St. Louis, Ill.).

Freshman Josephine Mulligan (Saint John, Ind.) ran the Vincennes offense on her way to 35 set assists in the match.

"We had to adjust our lineups around a little and rally together because we were playing without Hannah Graber (Montgomery, Ind.)," VUVB head coach Gary Sien said. "We have run a five-one offense before but other than in practice, we've never run it with Josephine."

"She did a really nice job overall," Sien added. "She set the ball extremely well and made good choices with the ball. She also had some crucial digs in the match."

"I think our liberos played really well, Grace Earp (Mattoon, Ill.) led us in digs while only playing in two sets. Then Lara Gomes de Castro (Sao Paulo, Brazil) came in and played well on the serve receive and defensively."

Vincennes started the second match of the day strong against Henry Ford Community College, opening the first set on a 10-1 scoring run.

Henry Ford traded scoring runs with the Blazers before VU finished off the first set, winning 25-14.

The Hawks were the ones to start the second set off, scoring four of the first five points.

The two teams would trade points, before VU went on an 11-1 scoring run to take a 22-12 lead late in the set.

VU closed out the second set to take a 2-0 match lead, winning 25-15.

Similar to the first set, VUVB opened the third set on a 10-1 scoring run.

Vincennes continued to play tough and finished off the set 25-9 to get their third sweep in two days.

The Blazers controlled the match against Henry Ford in two front, serving and blocking. Vincennes finished their second match of the day with 13 aces and 17 blocks.

Josephine Mulligan led the Blazers with four aces for the game, with Amee Beedle (Wheaton, Ill.) and Malgorzata Banasiak (Gdynia, Poland) ending with three each.

"We obviously served extremely well," Sien said. "Not just with the aces, but we really took them out of their offense. I felt at times we got a little too comfortable with that and started expecting to not have to play and we didn't really respond to that until the third set."

"Even though Henry Ford doesn't have a win this season, they are still a pretty athletic group. If you're not on task, they can beat you and they came after us pretty hard today," Sien added.

Addison Ainscough added two and Jamie Russell came away with one ace on the day.

Emilie Cornelson led the Blazers front row defensively, finishing with seven blocks. Mulligan, Ainscough, Szybinska, Metzger and Russell all finished with two blocks each.

"We really place a lot on our blockers and Emilie has always been one who can get up," Sien added. "When we add Banasiak and Metzger up there with her, those are two athletic, tall outsides and with all three of them together, we should be able to block every ball."

The Trailblazers have a busy road week ahead of them, starting Monday, Sept. 20 when they take on Region 24 opponent Kaskaskia in Centralia, Ill. at 7 p.m. eastern.

VU will then travel to Fairfield, Ill. to take on Frontier Community College Wednesday, Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. eastern, before finishing up the week by playing in the Parkland College Classic in Champaign, Ill. Friday Sept. 24 and Saturday, Sept. 25.

"Thankfully we were able to get some matches played this weekend, because it would have been tough to play Kaskaskia right after coming back. We have to use these past two days, these three matches as experience, to regroup and see what type of team we have," Sien said. "It's not going to be easy. Kaskaskia has played twice as many matches as we have, they are going to be very confident and it's at their place. It's definitely going to be the match of the week for Region 24."

MATCH ONE

East Central – 15  22  15  x  x

VUVB (5-1, 1-0) – 25  25  25  x  x

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Josephine Mulligan – 1.5 points, 1 ace, 1 block assist, 7 digs, 35 set assists

Amee Beedle – 2 digs

Addison Ainscough – 7.5 points, 7 kills, 1 block assist, 10 digs

Lara Gomes de Castro – 1 point, 1 ace, 4 digs, 2 set assists

Emilie Cornelson – 10 points, 6 kills, 4 block assists

Jagoda Szybinska – 12.5 points, 1 ace, 11 kills, 1 block assists, 3 digs

Breanna Metzger – 7 points, 6 kills, 2 block assists, 7 digs

Jamie Russell – 7.5 points, 1 ace, 6 kills, 1 block assist, 2 digs

Grace Earp – 13 digs

Malgorzata Banasiak – 7 points, 3 aces, 3 kills, 1 solo block

MATCH TWO

Henry Ford – 14  15  9  x  x

VUVB (6-1, 1-0) – 25  25  25  x  x

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Josephine Mulligan – 7 points, 4 aces, 2 kills, 2 block assists, 6 digs, 15 set assists

Amee Beedle – 3 points, 3 aces, 8 digs, 1 set assist

Addison Ainscough – 10.5 points, 2 aces, 7 kills, 1 solo block, 1 block assist, 8 digs, 1 set assist

Lara Gomes de Castro – 2 digs

Emilie Cornelson – 5 points, 1 kill, 1 solo block, 3 block assists, 1 dig

Jagoda Szybinska – 6 points, 5 kills, 2 block assists, 1 dig

Breanna Metzger – 3 points, 2 kills, 2 block assists, 8 digs, 1 set assist

Jamie Russell – 8.5 points, 1 ace, 6 kills, 1 solo block, 1 block assist

Grace Earp – 9 digs, 1 set assist

Malgorzata Banasiak – 3 points, 3 aces