Trailblazer volleyball closes out regular season with pair of home sweeps

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University volleyball team celebrated Sophomore Recognition Day Saturday at the Physical Education Complex in style, finishing out the 2022 regular season with a 25-9, 25-19, 25-22 sweep over Region 24 opponent Kaskaskia College and a 25-10, 25-12, 25-11 sweep over Kankakee Community College.

Vincennes began the day in the final Region 24 regular season game of the year against Kaskaskia College.

VU set the tone early for the day with sophomore setter Josephine Mulligan (Saint John, Ind.) beginning the game with an 8-0 scoring run.

The Blue Angels attempted to battle back before a late 6-0 run by freshman libero Morgan Netcott (Montague, Mich.) gave the Blazers a 22-8 run. The Trailblazers would hold on the take the first set 25-9.

Vincennes took an early lead in the second set as well before Kaskaskia responded back with an 8-0 run to grab their first lead of the day.

The Trailblazers would answer back on their home floor to take the lead after a 5-0 scoring run and hold on to take the second set 25-19.

Looking to complete the sweep, the Blazers found themselves in a battle in the third set. The two teams traded early scoring runs before VU would use an 8-2 scoring run to take a five-point lead.

Kaskaskia would cut the deficit to two points but were unable to regain the lead as VU closed out the sweep 25-22 to extend their Region 24 winning streak to 22 matches.

"It has been a long week for us," VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. "We haven't played since last weekend and I think the whole team was itching to get back out on the floor after a less than ideal weekend at Mineral Area. Our team was very anxious to play and I think we saw that all day today."

"When we played Kaskaskia earlier this season, in the fourth set, they served match point at least once," Sien added. "We were really close to losing that match in Centralia. But different circumstances today and even different personnel from that match. I think we are a much better team than when we played Kaskaskia before. So, we were definitely looking forward to this one because out of all of the other Region 24 matches this year, they were the closest to beating us."

"I really thought that our offense was much more diversified today," Sien said. "Our first match earlier this year we had Paige and Audrey combine for over 50 kills and we never want only two of our hitters having that many. When all six of our hitters are more balanced, that's really more of what we want and that was our goal coming into today."

"We really worked this past week on getting our middles more involved in the offense," Sien added. "I credit the team, first of all, because our first contact that we made was very good today. Secondly, our setters did a wonderful job of distributing the sets. Our goal at the beginning of the year is to always establish the middle attack first and then run the sets out to the pins. If we have that middle presence, that takes away their middle blocker and gives us more one-on-ones on the pins and when it's one hitter against one blocker, the hitter is going to win more often."

The Trailblazers were led offensively by freshman Alexis Chrappa (Effingham, Ill.) who led the Blazers with 12 kills on a .478 hitting percentage, while also adding a block and one dig.

Freshmen Audrey Buis (Franklin, Ind.) and Paige Parlanti (Las Vegas, Nev.) each finished with eight kills, with Buis adding five digs, one block and one dig. Parlanti would finish with 15 digs, three blocks and three aces.

Freshman Tuana Turhan (Ankara, Turkey) ended the first match of the day with seven kills, three blocks, one dig and one set assist.

Freshman Nisa Salis (Ankara, Turkey) came away with five kills, three blocks and a set assist.

Sophomore Malgorzata Banasiak (Gdynia, Poland) rounded out the VU offense with two kills and four digs.

Josephine Mulligan finished her seventh double-double of the season, while leading VU with 23 set assists, 16 digs and two aces.

Freshman setter Maecy Johnson (Chrisman, Ill.) helped Mulligan run the offense to finish with 11 set assists.

Morgan Netcott and sophomore Lara Gomes de Castro (Sao Paulo, Brazil) controlled the VU defense with Netcott leading the Blazers with 23 digs and one set assist, while Gomes de Castro added three digs.

The Trailblazers returned to the floor Saturday afternoon to close out the regular season against Kankakee Community College.

Vincennes carried their momentum from their earlier match into the first set against the Cavaliers with VU not allowing Kankakee to build any scoring runs as the Trailblazers took set one 25-10.

VU continued to roll in the second set, using three different 4-0 scoring runs to take the second set 25-12 and give themselves a 2-0 match lead.

The Trailblazers looked to close out the regular season on a high note in the third set and grabbed an early commanding lead after Lara Gomes de Castro put together an 11-0 scoring run.

The Cavaliers looked to answer back but were unable to close the margin as the Blazers took set three and completed the sweep 25-11.

"Lindsay Thompson is a first-year head coach at Kankakee," Sien said. "She was an All-American outside hitter and the last All-American Kankakee has had in 2010 who played for me. Similar to some of our players now, I've known her and her family for quite a while now. Whatever I can do to help out anybody, not just somebody that I know like Lindsay, to help grow the sport and grow competitive programs I will. It was kind of neat to coach against her today."

"Kankakee got started very late this season," Sien added. "So, she didn't have very many players. Then they had a bunch of injuries so they were down to seven players today. But we saw in their first match against Kaskaskia, there were times where they gave Kaskaskia some trouble."

"I always say, sometimes these teams scare me more than a Parkland or a Wallace State or Indian Hills," Sien said. "The human tendency is to play down and think that we can just show up and we will win. I'm proud of the fact that this team doesn't take any opponent for granted. This team seems to always know when to get the job done. As a coach that has been doing this for a while, at different levels, I very much appreciate that."

"We played hard," Sien added. "We served bullets. We blocked pretty well and were able to get our offense going. Plus, it was an opportunity for us to play the entire active roster. We also got a chance to play Lara as a libero, which we haven't done too often this season. We want to play everybody because you just don't know what can happen, so I thought this was a good match to get some different people in at different spots and get everyone some playing time."

Paige Parlanti led the VU offensive attack, finishing with 19 kills on a .500 hitting percentage for the Blazers, while just missing a double-double with eight digs, three aces and two blocks.

Tuana Turhan finished with four kills, three blocks and a dig, while freshman Kennedy Sowell (Effingham, Ill.) recorded four kills and a block.

Malgorzata Banasiak, Maecy Johnson and Alexis Chrappa each finished the day with two kills. Banasiak added three digs, Johnson added nine set assists and seven digs and Chrappa added six digs to their totals.

Sophomore Kaley Roush (Shoals, Ind.), Josephine Mulligan and Nisa Salis closed out the VU offense with one kill each. Roush ended her day with a pair of digs and a block, while Mulligan led the Blazers with 24 set assists and nine digs.

Morgan Netcott finished her day with five digs and a set assist, while Lara Gomes de Castro added three digs and three aces.

Saturday's matches marked the final regular season match for VU's five sophomores: Kaley Roush, Josephine Mulligan, Lara Gomes de Castro, Hannah Graber and Malgorzata Banasiak.

This group ends their sophomore regular season with an outstanding record of 49 wins and 12 losses, with a perfect 22-0 record against Region 24 opponents in two seasons at Vincennes University.

"Talking about volleyball, this group of sophomores is the best that I have ever had," Sien said. "They have a chance to win 50-plus matches even after last year's season was shortened and we weren't able to play a normal amount of games. Volleyball-wise, they have made a huge impact."

"Knowing that we were going to host the Region Tournament this year and also possibly have an opportunity to host the District Tournament, we really wanted to look at the 2021 recruiting class hard and bring in the right people," Sien added. "Because then they would be the sophomore leaders for this year. Not all of them came back for a second year, but these five that did, all five of them are going to mean a lot to myself as a coach even beyond the coach-player or mentor-mentee relationship."

"They are all wonderful people," Sien said. "Even when they are not out on the floor playing, they are always big supporters of the players that are on the court. They are going to have a special place in the history of this volleyball program. Being the first ones to win the first Region Championship at the Division I level is special, because that can only happen once and this is the class that did it. But also, they aren't even done yet."

"This group has also done a great job with the big sister-little sister relationship with the freshmen that we like to have here," Sien added. "They have taken that role and done an immense job with it, not only on the volleyball court, but as students in classes as well. One of the hardest things about coaching at this level is that you only get one or two years with these players and that's it. You don't get a lot of time to not only work with them, but to enjoy being around them as people. Because we see them grow as not only players but as students and people and by that time they are gone."

"What a special group," Sien said. "I am immensely blessed to get to work with them. The mark that they have left on this program and continue to leave has been huge."

The Trailblazers will begin postseason play next weekend when VU hosts the NJCAA Region 24 Tournament Friday, Oct. 28 and Saturday, Oct. 29.

Vincennes secured the No. 1-seed in next weekend's tournament and will face the winner of the No. 4-seed and No. 5-seed game, Friday, Oct. 28 at 4 p.m. eastern.

"We should be able to find out in the next couple of days what the seeding is for the tournament," Sien said. "We have great scouting reports about all of the teams in the Region throughout this season. One thing about this group of players is that they are not only on-task on the court, but they are like mini-coaches. They are able to remember the different tendencies of all of these teams and most of the time I don't have players like that. They are able to think that far ahead to know to remember playing against these teams."

"Whoever we play, we will be ready for them," Sien added. "Because we have all of those resources, including everybody on this team. I think we are as ready as we will ever be with that because we have been able to get pretty good scouting reports on all of the teams, which is rare."

BOX SCORE

GAME ONE

Kaskaskia – 9   19   22   x   x

VUVB (26-8, 10-0) – 25   25   25   x   x

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Josephine Mulligan – 2 points, 2 aces, 16 digs, 23 set assists

Audrey Buis – 8.5 points, 8 kills, 1 block assist, 5 digs, 1 set assist

Lara Gomes de Castro – 3 digs

Morgan Netcott – 23 digs, 1 set assist

Paige Parlanti – 12.5 points, 3 aces, 8 kills, 3 block assists, 15 digs

Alexis Chrappa – 12.5 points, 12 kill, 1 block assist, 1 dig

Nisa Salis – 6.5 points, 5 kills, 3 block assists, 1 set assist

Maecy Johnson – 11 set assists

Tuana Turhan – 9 points, 7 kills, 1 solo block, 2 block assists, 1 dig, 1 set assist

Malgorzata Banasiak – 2 points, 2 kills, 4 digs

GAME TWO

Kankakee – 10   12   11   x   x

VUVB (27-8, 10-0) – 25   25   25   x   x

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Kaley Roush – 1.5 points, 1 kill, 1 block assist, 2 digs

Josephine Mulligan – 1 point, 1 kill, 9 digs, 24 set assists

Lara Gomes de Castro – 3 points, 3 aces, 3 digs

Morgan Netcott – 5 digs, 1 set assist

Paige Parlanti – 23 points, 3 aces, 19 kills, 2 block assists, 8 digs

Alexis Chrappa – 2 points, 2 kills, 6 digs

Nisa Salis – 1 point, 1 kill

Maecy Johnson – 2 points, 2 kills, 7 digs, 9 set assists

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

Tuana Turhan – 6 points, 4 kills, 1 solo block, 2 block assists, 1 dig

Malgorzata Banasiak – 2 points, 2 kills, 3 digs