The Pitt State volleyball team travelled to Lubbock, Texas over the weekend. The team lost the first two games against Lubbock Christian and Dixie State on Friday, Sept. 13 (1-3, 0-3). The Gorillas opened Saturday’s games with a win against Black Hills State (3-2) but dropped the second game against Texas-Permian Bay (2-3). The team managed to make a comeback win in their home game against Missouri Southern on Tuesday, Sept. 17 (3-1).
Head coach Jen Gomez believes the team go off to a rocky start over the weekend but was happy to see them bounce back in the game against Missouri Southern.
“The weekend was a little rough, I think. We had some ups and downs and I think that as a young team we have to use that… Then I was kind of curious about we would respond tonight (Tuesday, Sept. 17) and I mean I was pretty pleased with the way that we were able to win and battle and come out on top and get our first conference win of the season.”
In the game against Black Hill State, sophomore Morgan Henning had 16 kills, four blocks, and one ace. Sophomore Hope White had 11 kills and one block. Junior Emily Regier had 10 kills and three blocks. Freshman Moyra Zulaica Casillas had 10 kills and four aces. Sophomore Marissa Bates had 25 digs, sophomore Brianna Richard had 17 digs, freshman Laura Willoughby had 15 digs, and Casillas had 11 digs. Willoughby had 29 assists, Richard had 24, senior Erika Ivkov and Casillas each had two assistst.
In the game against Missouri Southern, sophomore Meg Auten had 17 kills and one block. Ivkov had 11 kills, one block, and two aces. Sophomore Claire Sandvig had 10 kills and four blocks. Henning had nine kills and four blocks. Bates and freshman Addison Weybrew each had 19 digs and Willoughby and Ivkov each had 13. Willoughby had 28 assists, Richard had 18, Bates had eight, and freshman Maya Bascom had one assist.
“I thought we did a really good job, our outside really kind of came alive… I thought defensively we were pretty solid so that was nice to see.”
A couple of players stood out to Gomez during the games over the weekend and on Tuesday.
“On the weekend, I thought… both of my middles… really did a nice job over the weekend and then tonight I thought… Morgan Henning (stood out to me) and I thought Meg Auten did great.”
Gomez has high hopes for the games against Central Oklahoma on Friday, Sept. 20 in Edmond.
“… We go to Central Oklahoma this weekend on Friday and you know, they’re good and they’re going to be tough. And what we have to be is we have to make sure we’re not giving them very many points on misserves, so we have to (improve on that). I also think that we need to kind of fix our block a little bit… I just don’t think we block that well tonight. So, we’ve got to fix that a little bit. But other than that, I just want us to go in there, I want us to kind of keep the energy up, and I want them to expect to win.”