VU volleyball’s Region 24 winning streak survives five-set road thriller at Kaskaskia

CENTRALIA, Ill. – The Vincennes University volleyball team extended their Region 24 winning streak to 18 games Tuesday night after battling back in a tough five-set win at Kaskaskia College 27-25, 23-25, 19-25, 27-25, 15-11.

The Trailblazers grabbed the early lead in set one but quickly had to play from behind as the set went back and forth, heading into overtime before the Blazers closed out the 27-25 win.

Vincennes fell behind again in set two, trailing by seven before rallying back to tie the game at 19-19.

VU held tough in set two, going the distance before the Blue Angels came away with the 25-23 win to even the match at 1-1.

Vincennes looked to be in good position in set three, leading 16-15 with both teams struggling to put together big scoring runs.

Kaskaskia would take control of the third set however with a 4-0 scoring run and go on to close out the third set on a 10-3 scoring run to win 25-19 and hold a 2-1 match lead.

VU looked to extend the match in the fourth set but fell behind after a 9-0 scoring run by the Blue Angels put the Blazers down by five.

Vincennes would slowly chip away at the deficit, battling back to tie the game at 19-19. Vincennes would force the set into overtime and come away with the final three points of the set to take set four 27-25 and send the match to a winner-take-all fifth set.

The Trailblazers continued their momentum from the fourth set into the fifth, jumping out to an early 10-5 lead.

Kaskaskia would answer back on their home floor to cut the deficit to just a single point but were unable to take the lead away from the Blazers as VU took set five and the match 15-11.

"It always begins with our serve receive for us," VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. "We really struggled with that for the entire match tonight. Until we get to a point where we are consistent in our serve receive, we are going to continue to make things interesting. If we don't serve receive well it allows the other team to really make runs on us and once you face a couple of runs, it's really tough to come back."

"There were a few times in a couple of different sets where it looked like we were out of it," Sien added. "I think the fifth set was really the only one that we dominated from beginning to end. The first four were definitely nip and tuck the whole way. This team really deserves a lot of credit for really digging deep and picking up this win because we were definitely not at the top of our game."

"We really had some difficulty with just about everything at some point in this match," Sien said. "Serve receive, blocking, whatever it was, it was very frustrating for all of us. I just really want to give credit to this group because of our youth. We could have just given up and we could have lost in four tonight. We were behind so much in the fourth set that we could have just as easily called it a night and gone home, but this group really dug deep out there. That's a real testament to each of these players. They were able to find something within themselves and really battle back. This match also really shows the type of mentality and toughness this team has, so they definitely deserve a lot of credit for that."

The Trailblazers were led offensively by a pair of very impressive offensive matches by freshmen Paige Parlanti (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Audrey Buis (Franklin, Ind.).

Parlanti finished with another double-double and her second 20-20 game of the season with 29 kills and 26 digs. Parlanti also finished with four blocks, two set assists and an ace.

Buis ended her night with a double-double as well, finishing with a career-high 23 kills and 10 digs. Buis also had a good night at the net defensively, finishing with five blocks.

Freshmen Alexis Chrappa (Effingham, Ill.) and Tuana Turhan (Ankara, Turkey) also put together big nights at the net, with Chrappa ending with eight kills, three blocks and four digs and Turhan leading the Blazers with 10 blocks, five kills, a pair of digs and an ace.

Freshman Maecy Johnson (Chrisman, Ill.) finished with four kills and three blocks for the Blazers, while also adding three digs.

Sophomore Hannah Graber (Montgomery, Ind.) and freshman Kennedy Sowell (Effingham, Ill.) rounded out the VU offense with Graber finishing with a pair of kills, while leading VU with 32 set assists and nine digs. Sowell added one kill for Vincennes.

Sophomore Josephine Mulligan (Saint John, Ind.) finished off a double-double, ending with 20 set assists and 15 digs.

Freshman libero Morgan Netcott (Montague, Mich.) led VU with 31 digs and four set assists and sophomore Lara Gomes de Castro (Sao Paulo, Brazil) finished with six digs and one set assist.

"It goes back to our serve receive and our passing," Sien said. "We had a really tough time getting sets to our middles and even our right sides, so we really had to set quite a few to our left sides Paige and Audrey. Those two took some big-time swings. It felt like anytime we got the ball it was do-or-die, so we needed them to score, which puts a lot of pressure on them. But they definitely came through for us tonight."

"We really want to get a match where we don't have to rely on those two as much and be a little bit more balanced," Sien added. "But those are two freshmen that are taking the big swings for us, so I definitely want to give them both credit for taking that role and having the courage to want every set and being able to get good swings on all of them."

"I also want to give credit to our setters Hannah and Josephine for doing the best they could tonight," Sien said. "A lot of our passes were far off the net and they had to literally sprint to every ball to put a good a hittable set as possible. Those two definitely deserve a lot of credit for their hustle and effort."

The Trailblazers continue their week of Region 24 games by returning to the P.E. Complex for the first time since Sept. 10 when VU hosts Wabash Valley College Thursday, Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. eastern for Faculty and Staff Appreciation Night.

Vincennes will then close out the week on the road when VU takes on Lake Land College in Mattoon, Ill. Friday, Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. eastern.

"The way our schedule turned out, some of it may have caught up to us tonight," Sien said. "We've been on the road the last two weekends, with a big trip to Alabama last weekend. I think our record in September, with all of the road games and the tough scheduling, we've done pretty well."

"We are going to have to expect Wabash Valley and Lake Land to be better teams than the last time we faced them," Sien added. "Those are two teams that we beat fairly early in the season and they are going to be much more improved. The nice thing is that we get to play at home again, finally. So, we are going to enjoy that, but also Lake Land gave us some trouble earlier in the year and now we're going to their place. So that will be a tough match to end the week."

BOX SCORE

Kaskaskia – 25   25   25   25   11

VUVB (17-5, 6-0) – 27   23   19   27   15

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Josephine Mulligan – 15 digs, 20 set assists

Audrey Buis – 26 points, 23 kills, 1 solo block, 4 block assists, 10 digs

Lara Gomes de Castro – 1 point, 1 ace, 6 digs, 1 set assists

Morgan Netcott – 1 point, 1 ace, 31 digs, 4 set assists

Paige Parlanti – 32 points, 1 ace, 29 kills, 4 block assists, 26 digs, 2 set assists

Alexis Chrappa – 9.5 points, 8 kills, 3 block assists, 4 digs

Nisa Salis – 2 points, 4 block assists, 1 dig

Maecy Johnson – 6 points, 4 kills, 1 solo block, 2 block assists, 3 digs

Kennedy Sowell – 1 point, 1 kill

Tuana Turhan – 11 points, 1 ace, 5 kills, 10 block assists, 2 digs

Hannah Graber – 2 points, 2 kills, 9 digs, 32 set assists