Bethel volleyball takes on Hastings Tournament
The Threshers went 2-1 on the weekend with wins over William Woods and Central Christian, led by Offerle and Ownbey.
HASTINGS, Neb. — The Bethel volleyball team continued their season in Hastings, Neb. last weekend, finishing 2-1 on the weekend. The Threshers took down William Woods and Central Christian after dropping their first match of the weekend against Hastings.
“We had a tough loss to Hastings after starting off really strong winning set one,” said head coach Adriana Leake. “We learned a lot about ourselves and were able to bounce back and get two dominating sweeps. We had some players really step up and score big numbers for us, which will make us really tough to beat going forward.”
Two players that had big weekends for the Threshers were Cameron Offerle and Laci Ownbey. Each player had 32 kills over the three matches, co-leading the Threshers. Darla Crow brought in 12 blocks to lead the defense once again, giving her KCAC Defender of the Week honors, and Jordan Boone added seven of her own. Mia Roman assisted 96 times over the three matches, and a smattering of Threshers had double digit digs.
Bethel started off the weekend a little slow against Hastings, but turned on the gas in the second two matches. The Threshers know that they have things to work on if they want to come out hot in every match.
“Due to our short preseason, just five days before classes started, there were lots of things that we weren't able to break down and spend a lot of time on,” said Leake. We prioritized playing six v. six in practice and letting a few things slip through the cracks for now so we could be ready for our first matches. This week we'll really work into fine tuning our game and I'm hoping to see things like blocking, serve receive, and offense really clean up.
One thing that hasn’t needed tuning up so far is the Thresher defense. They held William Woods and Central Christian to hitting percentages of .029 and -.064 respectively. The Threshers look to keep this defensive effort up in the upcoming weeks, while simultaneously improving the other facets of their game.
This Thresher team is one of the more veteran teams that Bethel College has seen and they are looking to do something special behind their Coach and team leaders.
“I think what makes us special is that we enjoy competing together, celebrating each other, and reveling in each individual's success,” said Ownbey, a senior from Benton. “You can't beat that kind of support from both the team and our coaches.”
The Threshers head to Fort Worth, Tex. this weekend to play four games. Their first will be on Friday, Aug. 30 at 10 a.m. against Ave Maria University.