Women Fight Hard in Loss to #3 Grace
Coming off a mixed showing at their North Central pre-regional matches Faith traveled to Omaha to take on the 3rd ranked Grace Royals. The match would prove to be a test for the Eagles in this early part of the year. Faith had already played...
Coming off a mixed showing at their North Central pre-regional matches Faith traveled to Omaha to take on the 3rd ranked Grace Royals. The match would prove to be a test for the Eagles in this early part of the year. Faith had already played the #8 and #10 ranked teams so there was no intimidation factor. "Our schedule provides us the opportunity to play NAIA and NCAA Division III as well as top ranked NCCAA schools. This bodes well for us as we go through the year in helping us define our potential," remarked coach Lanny Nihart.
Faith started the match in strong fashion capturing set one 25-22. Aided by 96% serving and evenly distributed kills Faith maintained ball control and defensive pressure. Serve receive was the most notable improvement noticed by head assistant Erin Davis. "We did a great job of passing out of serve receive all night and especially getting a good start in the first set. Passing always establishes our ability to execute offensively and get our setters invloved,".
The Eagles continued to battle a much taller Royal team but found themselves losing sets two and three by the scores of 25-21 and 25-13. Set four found the Eagles down 14-6 before making a run to tie it at 19-19. The Royals then made a push to extend their lead to 24-20. Faith managed to knot the score at 24-24 only to lose 26-24 on hitting errors."We did a great job of battling Grace all night at the net and in digging their hitters. More importantly we showed ourselves and now believe we have the choice and ability to play sound volleyball every night. We were only a few plays away from getting a set four win and moving into set five in which anything can happen. Hopefully, the team will have great confidence going forward even in a loss," noted Nihart.
Faith was led by junior Julia Bray with 11 kills and freshmen outside hitter with 10 kills and 20 digs. Sophomore setter Stephanie Knupp continued her improvement with 36 assists.
