Vincennes volleyball looks tough in Midwest District Semi-Final defeat

VINCENNES, Ind. – The 2022 Region 24 Champion Vincennes University volleyball team hit the floor for the first time since their Region 24 tournament win last weekend for the Midwest District B Championships at VU Sunday afternoon.

The Trailblazers faced off in the District Semi-Finals against Iowa Western Community College. The Reivers picked up the win over the Blazers in four sets, 15-25, 25-22, 18-25, 17-25.

The opening set began as a back-and-forth battle, with each time trading side outs before Iowa Western picked up a massive 9-0 scoring run on their way to closing out set one 25-15.

Vincennes battled back in the second set, using a 5-0 scoring run to build a 23-13 lead.

Iowa Western would answer late and work their way back into the game but were unable to complete the comeback as the Trailblazers took set two 25-22 and evened the match at 1-1.

The Reivers added to their late momentum and it carried over into set three with Iowa Western gaining a 15-6 lead midway through the set.

Vincennes would work to close the margin late in the third set but were unable to put together a scoring run as Iowa Western took set three 25-18 and gained a 2-1 match lead.

VU looked to force a fifth set and held a two-point advantage, before the Reivers would score nine of the next 11 points to take the lead back.

Iowa Western pounced on the momentum change to finish the set on a 6-1 scoring run to take set four and the match 25-17.

"I just want to recognize and say that we have the best coaching staff in the Region," VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said after winning the Region 24 Coach of the Year award last weekend. "Mike Misner has been here around 18 years and Ariana Gentzler, an All-Region middle that played for us a couple years ago. Mike and Ariana deserve a lot of credit for keeping this team together while I was gone. There has been a lot of turnover in the Region on the coaching staffs. A lot of coaches have new assistants but it has been great that we have been able to have Mike around and add Ariana. I think they deserve all of the credit for all our success."

"I've been saying this for close to 40 matches this season and every year I've coached and today's match was no different, it comes down to serve receive," Sien added. "When you play high-level teams it's side out after side out because if you get a good pass and are in system, you are probably going to get a side out. But we just got into trouble really in all four sets today."

"The key, I thought even though we won the set, the key was that we didn't just finish Iowa Western in the second set," Sien said. "When you have somebody down like that, you just have to end it. You can't give them confidence. Despite that set win, Iowa Western just got right back into their game. I thought that was a really crucial point in the match."

"Iowa Western is a good blocking team," Sien added. "They know if somebody is going to get the ball, they are going to send two big blockers up there. They blocked our hitters a lot today and that usually doesn't happen to us. When you don't serve receive, your offensive options are limited. We fought and we played them hard. But when you have a bad passing day, our hitting becomes very predictable."

The Trailblazers were led offensively by freshman Alexis Chrappa (Effingham, Ill.) who finished with 10 kills and four blocks.

Freshmen Paige Parlanti (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Audrey Buis (Franklin, Ind.) ended the day with eight kills for Parlanti and seven for Buis.

Parlanti also added a team-high 29 digs and a pair of blocks, while Buis added two digs.

Sophomore Malgorzata Banasiak (Gdynia, Poland) finished the match with four kills and two blocks.

Freshman Tuana Turhan (Ankara, Turkey) and sophomore Hannah Graber (Montgomery, Ind.) round out the VU offense, each recording one kill. Turhan would lead the Blazers with five blocks, while Graber finished with 17 set assists, four aces and eight digs.

Sophomore Josephine Mulligan (Saint John, Ind.) helped Graber run the VU offense, finishing with 12 set assists, six digs and one ace.

Freshman libero Morgan Netcott (Montague, Mich.) and sophomore Lara Gomes de Castro (Sao Paulo, Brazil) controlled the VU back row defense with Netcott ending with 20 digs and two set assists, while Gomes de Castro finished with three digs.

"Definitely Hannah, overall, had a pretty good match," Sien said. "It's going to be tough to replace someone like her because she gives you so much. Her defense, setting ability to run an offense, her serving. She was really accurate serving for two years and that's why we were able to make so many runs. When you are an accurate server and you can get the ball where you want, good things happen."

"It's hard to say about our hitters today because we just weren't in system," Sien added. "When you don't pass and you don't hit, you don't have a middle attack. When we don't have a middle attack, then we are pretty predictable."

"I thought Alexis had some pretty good swings out there," Sien said. "She swung pretty smart. She knew that at times you can't just hit it hard and knew that we had to hit around a block. There are times where you can't get a kill no matter how good of a hitter you are and there are times where you have to hit it to a certain spot on the floor and she did that."

The VU Trailblazer volleyball season will likely end with a final record of 29-9 after the Blazers captured their second-straight Region 24 title in undefeated fashion.

Vincennes will look to take that next step forward next season but will unfortunately have to do it without graduating sophomores Kaley Roush, Josephine Mulligan, Lara Gomes de Castro, Hannah Graber and Malgorzata Banasiak.

This sophomore group finishes their VU careers with a final record of 51 wins and 13 losses, with an outstanding undefeated 24-0 record against Region 24 opponents.

"Our sophomores are an outstanding group of people," Sien said. "They are really good leaders, high character people. They support each other because they all really had to come in and out in the rotations. We thought we would be a little bit more experienced this year but these are the ones that came back and they are the ones who can say that they are back-to-back Region 24 Champions. They will always have that. No one can ever take that away from them."

"I've said before that you can always replace the position, but you can never replace the people," Sien added. "We are really going to miss these five as people, as leaders and their personalities. You can replace the volleyball skills but getting that high character person is always a challenge. My hope is these freshmen, who all agree these sophomores have been great leaders and helping them get started with their first year of college, it won't be long before the freshmen have to take that mantle and lead too."

"These sophomores did an excellent job of showing what it means to be a leader," Sen said. "Being a leader isn't just telling someone what to do, that's the easy part. It's about showing people what to do. That, to me, is leadership and what an awesome job they have done. This group has made my job less difficult and these last two years have been very enjoyable to coach this group. They have definitely left their mark on this program and we will be talking about this 2021 recruiting class for a while. They are leaving some big shoes to fill."

BOX SCORE

Iowa Western – 25   22   25   25   x

VUVB (29-9, 12-0) – 15   25   18   17   x

VINCENNES STATS

Josephine Mulligan – 1 point, 1 ace, 6 digs, 12 set assists

Audrey Buis – 7 points, 7 kills, 2 digs

Lara Gomes de Castro – 3 digs

Morgan Netcott – 20 digs, 2 set assists

Paige Parlanti – 9.5 points, 8 kills, 1 solo block, 1 block assist, 29 digs

Alexis Chrappa – 12 points, 10 kills, 4 block assists

Nisa Salis – 3.5 points, 1 ace, 1 solo block, 3 block assists

Tuana Turhan – 3.5 points, 1 kill, 5 block assists

Hannah Graber – 5 points, 4 aces, 1 kill, 8 digs, 17 set assists

Malgorzata Banasiak – 5 points, 4 kills, 2 block assists