Volleyball starts season strong at the OPSU Aggie Classic
Volleyball starts season strong at the OPSU Aggie Classic
Threshers start their season 2-1 after a weekend at Oklahoma Panhandle State.
GOODWELL, Okla. — The Thresher volleyball team began their season over the weekend as they traveled to Oklahoma for the OPSU Aggie Classic, starting their season strong, going 2-1.
“I didn’t really have any expectations for the weekend, we talked about our identity a lot and being really hard workers, focusing on the next point and figuring out how we respond to things that don’t go our way. My expectations were for us to go out and just play hard and then we went out and beat Baker in the first game ... a really good program ... which kind of set the tone for the weekend and made our expectations really high. I was really excited and happy for the girls because we have been working so hard for so long,” head coach Adriana Leake said.
On Friday, the Threshers took on the Baker Wildcats, where they went to three full sets.
Despite some technical errors with stats, the Threshers took the first set 25-13, won the second 25-21, dropped the third set 15-25, then took home the win in the fourth set with a 25-18 win, winning the match-up 3-1.
The Threshers then took on the host of the tournament, Oklahoma Panhandle State. OPSU took the first hard-fought set, 24-26. The Threshers came back in the second set and won 25-22 after five kills from senior Mia Loganbill and four kills from junior Kylah Carter. OPSU took the third set 25-27. OPSU then held the Threshers off to win the fourth set 19-25. The Aggies won the match 1-3
Some of the stat leaders for this match-up were Carter with 14 kills, sophomore setter Mia Roman with 27 assists, and senior defensive specialist Katey Wilhelm with 18 digs.
“I expected Katey to perform well because she worked so hard all summer and was here all summer busting her butt off, so her having a good weekend didn’t surprise me. Mia Roman stepped into a new role, setting all around, so her numbers were great because our hitters’ numbers were great,” Leake said.
In their last match-up of the tournament on Saturday morning, the Threshers took on Paul Quinn College.
They started off by dropping the first set 23-25. Just like in their match-up against OPSU, the Threshers turned it on in the second set with Loganbill and Carter combining for 13 kills, leading the Threshers to take the second set 25-22. In the third set, the Threshers forced 13 errors on Paul Quinn and recorded four service aces, advancing to win the set 25-21. The Threshers rolled past Paul Quinn in the fourth set, taking an easy 25-12 set win, and won the match 3-1.
Stat leaders from this match-up included Carter with 18 kills, Roman with 34 assists, senior middle hitter Julie Wilhite with five blocks, and junior setter Kaitlyn Shima with 15 digs.
“Kylah really surprised me over the weekend because she had been performing okay in practice and there was a point where she wasn’t even starting for us. Then she went in and went crazy and was unstoppable against everybody that we played, and so her numbers were insane,” Leake said.