Volleyball Seasons Ends on the Road
The Defiance College volleyball team hit the road to Bluffton University on Wednesday evening, November 1st, for the first round of Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament play. The Yellow Jackets lost in three sets, ending their 2017 season.
Defiance started the first set slow, but came back quickly, leading Bluffton 13-11. After a string of Jacket errors and Beaver kills, Defiance fell behind 14-19. The Yellow Jackets were able to string together a few points, but fell short to the Beavers, 23-25. Bluffton dominated in set two, coming out with a 4-0 lead over the Jackets. Defiance was able to stay with Bluffton until the Beavers got on a kill streak and ran away with the score. Bluffton won set two 14-25. The Yellow Jackets came back in the third set, battling back and forth with the Beavers. Defiance found themselves in a 13-9 advantage over Bluffton, but the Beavers soon came back and tied the set at 15. The teams battled back and forth, but the Jackets fell short, losing 23-25.
The offensive side was led by Emma Seitz with 10 kills and 7 kills by Marissa Windau. Morgan Porter led the defense with 20 digs, with Windau right behind with 18 and Jaidyn Patridge with 16. Seitz also led at the net with 7 blocks on the night. Assistant coach, Alicia Kalik commented on the girl’s season, “ The 2016 season was a year of a lot of growth. Having a majority of our team being underclassmen, there were several girls who had to step up and be key components in our play. We started off the season learning how to work together with everyone in their new roles and that took some time, along with battling through some injuries. However, we continued to build and learn and that helped us to go 5-4 in conference play. Overall, we would have loved to have more wins in the record book, but the growth of each player is what excites us for the future.” The loss to Bluffton finished the volleyball team’s season at 10-13. Kalik also had to say, “The recruiting class for 2018 looks very promising. Adding the talented class of 2018 on top of our returning squad, it excites us for our future! I also want to give a huge shout out to our seniors who have devoted so much to our program. They are truly going to be missed!!” The volleyball team plans to work very hard in the off-season to improve their skills and achieve their goals.
Written by Michaela Bauer
