Volleyball Struggles to Finish
The Defiance College volleyball team came out swinging hard against Marietta College on Friday evening at Oberlin, Ohio. Combined kills from multiple Yellow Jackets led to a 13-9 lead. A quick turnaround of many errors caused a Marietta comeback to tie the score at 25. Though a hard fought set, the Yellow Jackets couldn’t hold on and lost 25-27.
The second set was a rough start for the Jackets with a 3-8 deficit. They were soon able to turn it around with multiple kills from Windau and service aces from Jenni Davis and Abby Cronin to get a 15-14 lead. Several errors from the Pioneers side and kills from different Jackets lead to Defiance’s first set win of the season at 25-21.
The third set consisted of a slow start for the Jackets, eventually tying the score at 6. At that point, it was service aces, with the occasional kill, that lead the way for Defiance in set three. Jenni Davis and Cronin had at least three aces apiece to lead the Jackets to a 25-10 win.
Defiance started out the fourth set strong coming out with a 20-12 lead. The Yellow Jackets quickly found themselves behind after a string of errors and multiple Pioneer kills. The Jackets were not able to keep their lead, and lost the set 24-26.
Set five had a strong start with the Yellow Jackets coming out with a 5-0 lead. After multiple errors by different Jackets and kills from the Pioneers, Defiance was not able to hold on and lost the fifth set 10-15, losing the match to Marietta College.
Defiance started out Saturday struggling against Mount Aloysius College. After a couple kills and service aces from Abby Cronin, the Jackets found themselves up 11-8. The rest of the match was a battle between the two teams until the Jackets were able to take advantage of multiple Mountie errors and go ahead 22-18. A couple Jacket kills and more opponent errors lead the Jackets to a 25-19 win.
The second set started slow for the Jackets with some attacking errors and Mount Aloysius kills. Defiance was able to string together some kills accompanied by more Mountie errors to make the score 12-7. The Jackets were on fire with more kills, big blocks, and service aces to win the set 25-16.
The Jackets started the third set with a 2-8 deficit, but quickly came back with errors from Mount Aloysius and kills from multiple Jackets. The two teams battled back and forth for a couple points before Defiance ran away with the lead and won 25-17, winning their first match of the season.
In the final match of the weekend against Oberlin, the Yellow Jackets came out fighting for another win on the day. The two teams fought back and forth the entire set with kills and errors from both sides. After being tied at 16, the Yeomen ran with the lead and won the first set 18-25.
The Jackets came out fighting the second set pulling ahead with a 10-3 lead. Multiple kills from Jessi Davis, Marissa Windau, Emma Seitz, and Brooke Plummer, blocks, and Yeomen errors lead Defiance to a 25-17 set win.
In the third set, possession of the serve altered every point until Abby Cronin came in with a service ace, followed by a kill from Seitz and block from Seitz and Jessi Davis. It was then a close match until Oberlin was able to string together some kills and aces accompanied by Defiance errors. The Jackets lost 17-25.
The fourth set was a rough start for the Jackets as they found themselves in a 5-16 deficit. A Danielle Robbins kill started a late Yellow Jacket rally that consisted of Yeomen errors and kills by Brooke Plummer. Unfortunately the rally wasn’t enough, and Defiance lost the set 16-25, losing the match.
The Yellow Jackets are back in action Tuesday, September 12th, at Heidelberg University.
Written by Michaela Bauer
