Vincennes Volleyball takes a two-game split on final day of Parkland Tournament

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Vincennes University Volleyball team closed out the four-game weekend tournament at Parkland College Saturday afternoon with a two-game split.

The Trailblazers began the day by picking up the three-set sweep over McHenry County 25-22, 25-23, 25-16 before returning to the floor to face host Parkland College where VU fell 21-25, 18-25, 15-25.

Vincennes began the day against McHenry County and quickly took the lead in set one. VU never trailed in the opening set as VU grabbed the early lead and held on to take set one 25-22.

The Trailblazers again grabbed an early lead in set two, behind a 4-0 run by freshman libero Morgan Netcott (Montague, Mich.).

McHenry County would manage to get their first lead of the game at 17-16, before Vincennes rallied to take the lead back.

The second set went the distance, with Vincennes holding on late to pick up the 25-23 win.

Set three saw VU grab an early 5-1 lead, before trading points throughout the early to middle parts of the set.

Vincennes used a 5-0 scoring run to build a nine-point lead late, which the Trailblazers would hold onto to close out set three and complete the sweep 25-16.

"Going into the McHenry game, I felt like we were going to win," VU Assistant Coach Mike Misner said. "McHenry was down to their third setter. It wasn't their team that they normally put on the court. They battled us, but it looked like we were going to win from the start."

"We didn't play with the emotion that we usually want in a game like that," Misner added. "It was a good game. You want to win those games 3-0 and that's what we did. I thought we took care of business. I would have liked to see more energy in that game because I told the team that we can't play at that same energy level against Parkland."

The Trailblazers were led offensively by freshman Paige Parlanti (Las Vegas, Nev.) who had another outstanding game, finishing with 17 kills, eight digs, one block assist and one ace.

Freshmen Audrey Buis (Franklin, Ind.) and Alexis Chrappa (Effingham, Ill.) each finished with four kills, with Buis adding four digs and a block and Chrappa adding three blocks and a dig.

Freshman Nisa Salis (Ankara, Turkey) and sophomore Malgorzata Banasiak (Gdynia, Poland) each recorded two kills against McHenry, with Salis adding a pair of blocks, two digs and an ace.

Freshman Tuana Turhan (Ankara, Turkey) and sophomore Hannah Graber (Montgomery, Ind.) rounded out the VU offense, each finishing with one kill. Turhan would add a pair of blocks and a dig, while Graber led the Blazers with 18 set assists, three digs and a pair of aces.

Freshman setter Maecy Johnson (Chrisman, Ill.) helped run the VU offense with Graber, with Johnson recording nine set assists, five digs and a pair of aces.

Morgan Netcott also recorded a pair of set assists, while also leading Vincennes with 12 digs and two aces.

Sophomore Lara Gomes de Castro (Sao Paulo, Brazil) closed out the VU box score recording a pair of digs on the back row defensively.

After a short break the Blazers returned to the floor to close out the weekend tournament against host Parkland College.

Vincennes got an early jump on the host Cobras, before Parkland battled back to take the lead at 15-14.

VU would even the score but could not get the lead back as Parkland pulled away late to take set one 25-21.

Vincennes again took the lead early in set two, before Parkland answered back with three 3-0 scoring runs to take the lead and come away with the set two victory 25-18.

Parkland got looked to take complete control of the match in set three, using a 7-1 scoring run to take a four point lead.

Vincennes would try to answer back but the Cobras closed out the set on a 9-2 run to take set three and the match 25-15.

"We had a gameplan going in," Misner said. "I got to sit and scout Parkland before our game. I had about seven bullet points to take to the team about. We wanted to funnel the ball cross court to our libero. Parkland likes to hit the ball cross court and I thought if we could keep them from hitting down the line, Morgan could dig the cross-court shots and in set one Parkland just hit everything to Morgan."

"In sets two and three, they tried to start doing other things and we kept them from hitting line a little bit but they would get one down every now and then," Misner added. "They also tipped at the next quite a bit, which we knew was going to happen and they got a couple of tips down. We just needed to play a little bit better defense."

"Also defensively, I thought we blocked well," Misner said. "This was probably one of our better blocking matches. We may not end up with the total numbers, but I thought this was one of our better blocking games that we have had all year. We typically have a good blocking team. We've been coming around a little slow this year with all of our freshmen. But I thought they did a great job. We got Nisa on the court and I thought she did an outstanding job, serving and playing defense at the net. Our right sides did a great job and our left sides had a job to do against Parkland's middles. We were trying to take away their shots with our middles and our left sides did a great job of keeping them from hitting where they wanted."

"We probably hurt ourselves more this game with our unforced errors," Misner added. "If we don't have those unforced errors, I think it's a lot tighter game. The first two sets were tight anyway, but it could have been a difference between winning and losing. We hit a few balls from the back row out of bounds and we weren't aggressive on a couple of swings and Parkland had easy blocks. Then we missed a couple of key serves. I thought we served tough. We are a good serving team and when we get our serves in, they are tough. We knew we weren't going to get a lot of aces, but we wanted to take them out of their offense and I really think we did a good job of that."

VU was again led offensively by Paige Parlanti who completed her 10th double-double of the season with 13 kills and 11 digs. Parlanti also added a block and an ace.

Audrey Buis ended her day with eight kills and two digs and Malgorzata Banasiak recorded six kills, two blocks and a dig.

Alexis Chrappa finished with three kills, three digs and a block, while Nisa Salis ended with two kills and three blocks.

Hannah Graber and Maecy Johnson again controlled the VU offense from the setter position, with Graber leading the way with 18 set assists, three digs and an ace and Johnson finishing with eight set assists, two digs and an ace.

Morgan Netcott would record a pair of set assists, while leading the Blazers with 18 digs, while Lara Gomes de Castro and Tuana Turhan each finished with a set assist. Gomes de Castro added six digs and Turhan finished with three digs.

The Trailblazers continue this long stretch of road games next week when VU travels to Carterville, Ill. for a Region 24 showdown against John A. Logan College Wednesday, Sept. 21. This match is set to begin at 7 p.m. eastern.

"We have to have the effort we just had against John A. Logan," Misner said. "If we have that kind of effort then I think our chances are really good. This was probably the best effort we have had, in a tough match, this season. We've had some good efforts when we were winning easy, but that's not hard to coach. But having the effort in a tough game from beginning to end is what you want."

"There is probably not one match that could have better prepared us to go into a Region 24 game," Misner added.

BOX SCORE

GAME ONE

McHenry County – 22   23   16   x   x

VUVB (12-3, 4-0) – 25   25   25   x   x

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Audrey Buis – 4.5 points, 4 kills, 1 block assist, 4 digs

Lara Gomes de Castro – 2 digs

Morgan Netcott – 2 points, 2 aces, 12 digs, 2 set assists

Paige Parlanti – 18.5 points, 1 ace, 17 kills, 1 block assist, 8 digs

Alexis Chrappa – 6 points, 4 kills, 1 solo block, 2 block assists, 1 dig

Nisa Salis – 4 points, 1 ace, 2 kills, 2 block assists, 2 digs

Maecy Johnson – 2 points, 2 aces, 5 digs, 9 set assists

Tuana Turhan – 2 points, 1 kill, 2 block assists, 1 dig

Hannah Graber – 3 points, 2 aces, 1 kill, 3 digs, 18 set assists

Malgorzata Banasiak – 2 points, 2 kills

GAME TWO

Parkland – 25   25   25   x   x

VUVB (12-4, 4-0) – 21   18   15   x   x

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Audrey Buis – 8 points, 8 kills, 2 digs

Lara Gomes de Castro – 6 digs, 1 set assist

Morgan Netcott – 18 digs, 2 set assists

Paige Parlanti – 15 points, 1 ace, 13 kills, 1 solo block, 11 digs

Alexis Chrappa – 3.5 points, 3 kills, 1 block assist, 3 digs

Nisa Salis – 3.5 points, 2 kills, 3 block assists

Maecy Johnson – 1 point, 1 ace, 2 digs, 8 set assists

Tuana Turhan – 3 digs, 1 set assist

Hannah Graber – 1 point, 1 ace, 3 digs, 18 set assists

Malgorzata Banasiak – 7 points, 6 kills, 2 block assists, 1 dig