Trailblazers pick up split on tough first day at Wallace State C.C. Fall Bash

HANCEVILLE, Ala. – The Vincennes University volleyball team made the long trip down to Alabama Friday morning to take part in the two-day Wallace State C.C. Fall Bash in Hanceville.

The Trailblazers had a tough first day but came away with a four-set win over Spartanburg Methodist 19-25, 25-15, 25-14, 28-26 before falling to host and No. 20-ranked Wallace State in five sets 25-22, 21-25, 18-25, 25-23, 12-15.

Vincennes opened the day on a hot start coming off of the six-hour bus ride against Spartanburg, jumping out to an early 1106 lead in set one.

Slowly the Pioneers battled back, tying the score and eventually taking the lead on their way to closing out set one on a 5-0 scoring run to finish 25-19.

VU got out to another early lead in the second set, holding a 14-6 lead. The Trailblazers would continue to build on this lead to a 10-point advantage before coming away with set two 25-15 and evening the match.

The Trailblazers kept riding this momentum into the pivotal third set where VU used a 5-0 scoring run by freshman libero Morgan Netcott (Montague, Mich.) to take a 19-11 lead before closing out the set 25-14 and taking a 2-1 match lead.

Set four was a back-and-forth battle, with the two teams trading leads several times on small scoring runs before Spartanburg took the lead at 25-24 and forced overtime. Vincennes would take the match after closing out the fourth set with three unanswered points 28-26.

"Firstly, I want to thank Coach Mike Misner and Coach Ariana Gentzler for coaching during these past two weeks when I wasn't available," VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. "They did an excellent job of keeping the team together. A lot of times you don't hear about the Assistant Coaches and at this level most of the time they are part-time coaches who have other full-time jobs and responsibilities. I just want to give them credit for holding this team together during the middle of our season and a tough schedule."

"Today we had a really different lineup on the floor," Sien added. "We were missing a couple of players but I always say, 'I don't have time to worry about who is not out there.' I think it took us the first set to get used to the lineup changes. One example is Josephine Mulligan, who has been out for two weeks coming back, which allowed us to use Maecy Johnson as a hitter, which she is, we just haven't used her as a hitter this season yet."

"But I told the team after the first set that I thought we played well, we just didn't finish. We didn't execute," Sien said. "Obviously the team took that and believed that because the next two sets were in the teens. Even the fourth set was a challenge too. We lost the first set. Took care of business in two and three and all of a sudden here they come in set four and how do we react. That fourth set was another gut-check for us with our unfamiliar rotations and players either coming back or playing in new positions."

The Trailblazers were led offensively by freshman Paige Parlanti (Las Vegas, Nev.) who recorded her 11th double-double of the season with 21 kills and 14 digs, as well as a team high four aces and two blocks.

Freshmen Audrey Buis (Franklin, Ind.) and Alexis Chrappa (Effingham, Ill.) also finished the match in double-figures in kills with Buis finishing with 12 kills, three digs and a block and Chrappa ending with 11 kills, four digs and a block.

Freshmen Maecy Johnson (Chrisman, Ill.) and Kennedy Sowell (Effingham, Ill.) hit the ball well, with Johnson recording six kills, two digs and a pair of blocks and Sowell finishing with four kills, three digs and two blocks.

Freshman Tuana Turhan (Ankara, Turkey) played well at the net all day, starting with three kills, a team-high four blocks, two digs and an ace in the first match of the day.

Sophomore setters Hannah Graber (Montgomery, Ind.) and Josephine Mulligan (Saint John, Ind.) each recorded a kill as well, with Graber leading the team with 21 set assists and eight digs and Mulligan recording a double-double in her first game back in two weeks with 19 set assists, 10 digs and an ace.

Freshman Morgan Netcott and sophomore Lara Gomes de Castro (Sao Paulo, Brazil) rounded out the VU lineup defensively, with Netcott leading the Blazers with 16 digs, while also adding six set assists and an ace. Gomes de Castro would finish the first match of the day with seven digs.

The Trailblazers had little time to celebrate their win over Spartanburg before having to turn around and face host and No. 20-ranked Wallace State to close out the day.

The opening set against the host Lions saw the Blazers have to battle back late after falling behind 19-13, with an 8-0 scoring run by Paige Parlanti.

Once Vincennes took the lead from Wallace State they never looked back and closed out the first set 25-22.

Set two looked to be headed down a similar path, with both teams launching lengthy scoring runs in the early part of the set before trading points towards the end with Wallace State coming out on top 25-21.

Vincennes got off to a slow start in set three with Wallace State taking full control of the set early and building on their quick lead to take the set 25-18 and take a 2-1 match lead.

The Trailblazers would rally back in the fourth set however, going the distance to force a fifth set 25-23.

VU quickly fell behind in the winner-take-all fifth set 9-3 before tying the game with a 6-0 scoring run by Tuana Turhan.

Vincennes would trade points with the Lions with Wallace State eventually building a three-point lead and held on to take the fifth set and the match 15-12.

"There was not a lot of time between matches, so I really didn't say a whole lot to the team because I knew it would be hard to process that in such a short amount of time," Sien said. "It was at a point where we just said, 'Let's just play and worry about our side of the net.' We obviously wanted to be aggressive on the floor."

"One of the things that I noticed after watching some of the games over the past week is that at times, we looked kind of sloppy out there," Sien added. "Even today we were kind of sloppy, as opposed to getting two clean contacts on the ball where we are able to get a good third contact at the net and put the ball away. I saw major steps of improvement on that today. I thought our hitters took some great swings at the ball."

"Similar to our serve receive," Sien said. "Sometimes our serve receive is up and down, hot and cold, but I see where we are just not aggressive at times at getting after the ball. I think overall, our ball control was a bit more consistent than from what I saw last week. We still have a long way to go there, but I thought we just took a bigger step forward in executing and you can see the results of that. We gave Wallace State everything they could handle tonight and we used this as an example because we are missing some people, that if we can play like this all the time, we are a pretty hard team to beat."

"I just thought we had a better mental approach to both matches today," Sien added. "And I'm very proud of the fact that the team understood what I was telling them, saw that they needed to change a little bit of their mental approach and played really strong overall. We still have a long way to go, but tonight was night and day compared to what I saw last week."

VU was led offensively by the hitting duo of Paige Parlanti and Audrey Buis against Wallace State. With the freshman tandem each recording double-doubles.

Parlanti led the Blazers with 18 kills, 13 digs, two aces and a block, while Buis finished with 15 kills, 10 digs, two blocks and a set assist.

Alexis Chrappa and Tuana Turhan had big games at the net both offensively and defensively with Chrappa finishing with seven kills, five blocks and two digs and Turhan ending with six kills, 10 blocks, four digs and an ace.

Kennedy Sowell finished with four kills and a block and Maecy Johnson recorded three kills, three blocks and a dig.

Hannah Graber rounded out the VU offense with a pair of kills, while also leading the Blazers with 26 set assists on the night and five digs.

Josephine Mulligan also ran the VU offense with Graber, ending with 20 set assists, three digs and an ace for the match.

Morgan Netcott had an absolutely phenomenal match defensively for the Trailblazers, posting a new career-high of 42 digs on the night. Besting her previous career-high by 11 digs. Netcott would also finish with a pair of set assists and an ace.

Lara Gomes de Castro finished out the VU box score against Wallace State with five digs defensively.

The Trailblazers will have a quick turnaround as VU closes out the Wallace State Fall Bash Saturday, Sept. 24 against Walters State at 10 a.m. eastern and Chattanooga State at 12 p.m. eastern.

"We've got to get these two matches tomorrow," Sien said. "What we did today doesn't mean a thing if we don't come back and get these two tomorrow. One of the things that I have seen over the past six or seven years is that some of the programs in the South have gotten stronger. These two are D-II programs. Chattanooga State is ranked and Walters State has made the National Tournament recently."

"There are only so many strong teams both at Division I and Division II in the South and I think these are two of the stronger teams in Division II down here," Sien added. "So Obviously we have to be ready for that tomorrow. They won't be as tall, but they will have some hitters too. So, we need to get them. We can't have another split, or worse tomorrow. In order for today's results to mean anything, we have to come out and win both matches tomorrow."

BOX SCORE

GAME ONE

Spartanburg Methodist – 25   15   14   26   x

VUVB (14-4, 5-0) – 19   25   25   28   x

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Josephine Mulligan – 3 points, 2 aces, 1 kill, 10 digs, 19 set assists

Audrey Buis – 13 points, 12 kills, 1 solo block, 3 digs

Lara Gomes de Castro – 7 digs

Morgan Netcott – 1 point, 1 ace, 16 digs, 6 set assists

Paige Parlanti – 27 points, 4 aces, 21 kills, 2 solo blocks, 14 digs

Alexis Chrappa – 11.5 points, 11 kills, 1 block assist, 4 digs

Maecy Johnson – 8 points, 6 kills, 2 solo blocks, 2 digs

Kennedy Sowell – 5.5 points, 4 kills, 1 solo block, 1 block assist, 3 digs

Tuana Turhan – 8 points, 1 ace, 3 kills, 4 solo blocks, 2 digs

Hannah Graber – 1 point, 1 kill, 8 digs, 21 set assists

GAME TWO

Wallace State – 22   25   25   23   15

VUVB (14-5, 5-0) – 25   21   18   25   12

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Josephine Mulligan – 1 point, 1 ace, 3 digs, 20 set assists

Audrey Buis – 16 points, 15 kills, 2 block assists, 10 digs, 1 set assist

Lara Gomes de Castro – 5 digs

Morgan Netcott – 1 point, 1 ace, 42 digs, 2 set assists

Paige Parlanti – 20.5 points, 2 aces, 18 kills, 1 block assist, 13 digs

Alexis Chrappa – 9.5 points, 7 kills, 5 block assists, 2 digs

Maecy Johnson – 5 points, 3 kills, 1 solo block, 2 block assists, 1 dig

Kennedy Sowell – 4.5 points, 4 kills, 1 block assist

Tuana Turhan – 13 points, 1 ace, 6 kills, 2 solo blocks, 8 block assists, 4 digs

Hannah Graber – 2 points, 2 kills, 5 digs, 26 set assists