Trailblazers fall at No. 20 Mineral Area to open road weekend

PARK HILLS, Mo. – The Vincennes University Trailblazers set off for their final weekend tournament away from the P.E. Complex Friday afternoon to take part in the Cardinal Classic hosted by Mineral Area College.

VU began their weekend Friday by taking on host and No. 20-ranked Mineral Area and fell to the host Cardinals 22-25, 18-25, 22-25.

Vincennes got off to a hot start against Mineral Area, jumping out to an early four-point lead midway through the opening set.

The Cardinals would bounce back and take the lead after a 5-0 scoring run, however and while the Blazers were able to even the score late in the set, VU wasn't able to recapture the lead as Mineral Area took set one 25-22.

Mineral Area looked to be rolling early in the second set using a few small scoring runs to build a 15-6 lead midway through the set.

Vincennes would attempt to rally back and were able to cut the deficit to five but were unable to completely close the margin as Mineral Area took set two 25-18 and gained a 2-0 match lead.

Set three began as a back-and-forth battle with Mineral Area striking first with a 6-0 scoring run to take a 15-9 lead.

Vincennes would rally back to even the score at 22-all before the Cardinals closed out the set on a 3-0 scoring run to take set three and complete the sweep 25-22.

"I thought we started out pretty strong," VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. "That's been our thing to work on all season, is to have a strong first set. I thought really all three sets tonight we were pretty strong. At least once per set, if not more, we had leads."

"When you are playing against teams of that caliber, everything is going to be fast," Sien added. "Their hitters are going to be swinging about five times harder than the hitters we've seen these past couple of weeks, so obviously you are going to need to have a strong block to keep the ball on their side of the net. If not, then we need to dig the ball and not only dig it but control it off the block."

"I thought in the first set we had to get used to and adjusted to their speed," Sien said. "I'd like to schedule more teams that are like that if I could. I know we played Mineral Area earlier this year, about a month ago and we faced some tough teams at Parkland and Wallace State, but I wish we had two or three more matches against teams like that."

The Trailblazers were led offensively by freshman Paige Parlanti (Las Vegas, Nev.) who came away with her 19th double-double of the season with 12 kills, 13 digs, an ace and one set assist.

Freshmen Audrey Buis (Franklin, Ind.) and Alexis Chrappa (Effingham, Ill.) were next in line with Buis finishing with eight kills and three digs and Chrappa ending the night with five kills, two digs, one set assist and a block.

Freshman Nisa Salis (Ankara, Turkey) and sophomore Malgorzata Banasiak (Gdynia, Poland) finished with four kills, two digs and two blocks each.

Freshman Tuana Turhan (Ankara, Turkey) rounded out the VU offense with a pair of kills, two digs, one set assist and one block.

Sophomore setters Josephine Mulligan (Saint John, Ind.) and Hannah Graber (Montgomery, Ind.) ran the Vincennes offense with the pair finishing with 13 set assists each. Mulligan would also add eight digs and an ace, while Graber finished with seven digs.

Sophomore Lara Gomes de Castro (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and freshman libero Morgan Netcott (Montague, Mich.) held the Trailblazers defense together all night with Gomes de Castro ending with three digs and an ace and Netcott leading the Blazers with 24 digs and a set assist.

"Getting used to the level of play is one thing, however, one thing that I am very proud of tonight is how hard we worked on our side," Sien said. "There were times when it was very crucial to go on rallies. Paige was all over the court. The stats may say that she had 13 digs, but it really seemed like she had closer to 50 because she was everywhere on the court. Hannah had a really good hustle play where she got to a ball at the scorer's table and kept it in play. Morgan had another one where it looked like she had no chance to get the ball but still found a way to get a hand on it, keep it up and I think we won the point on a shot."

"Definitely I am very proud of the effort," Sien added. "When it comes to defense, no matter what level you play and what your experience level is, to me, defense is all heart. It was probably one of our top defensive effort games of the year so far. I thought that in any one of those sets a play here or there really could have swung things to our favor. I'm sure we showed the other team that we were aiming to win the match out here tonight. When you have that level of effort, I'm sure it gives some level of concerns to the other side of the net."

"The other thing tonight was that we tried to make some adjustments," Sien said. "You can't block everything, so we really tried to focus on blocking the line shot and have Mineral Area just hit the ball cross-court against us and we adjusted our defense to dig. From about the second set on, it seemed like Morgan got every ball hit to her up."

"I also want to give credit to Lara's effort out there tonight," Sien added. "It looked like in warmups that she might not be able to play. She didn't really get to warm up with us, but by the time the game started she was feeling better and I sent her out there and I thought she gave a really nice effort. She made some big plays for us defensively to keep the ball alive and came away with an ace at a big moment when we needed it."

The Trailblazers will close out the weekend tournament Saturday, Oct. 15 when VU faces off against No. 3 Indian Hills at 11 a.m. eastern and Barton Community College at 3 p.m. eastern.

"Indian Hills, since I started coaching at this level in 2000, I've seen the different levels that they have been at," Sien said. "We haven't played them in a few years, but generally, I kind of know that they are going to have very athletic players, hitters that can hit all kinds of shots. Maybe they are not going to be a very dominant blocking team, but it is going to be hard to put a ball away against them if we are not in system."

"We have to be able to pass in order to run our offense," Sien added. "It's kind of what we did tonight. When we are in system, we are able to put the ball away. Indian Hills will be a challenge with that. We know that they are a team that is not going to make unforced errors. They are going to be keeping the ball up, so it will really come down to which team makes a mistake first."

"They are the ones that are nationally ranked, so the pressure is on them tomorrow," Sien said. "We need to play hard, but also play relaxed. I thought our players were very disappointed tonight that we didn't win. It was like we were so close and there were just certain points where we needed to make a play and when we have a chance like that, we have to make those plays. More times than not, we made a couple, but we just didn't make enough plays when we needed to."

BOX SCORE

Mineral Area – 25   25   25   x   x

VUVB (25-6, 9-0) – 22   18   22   x   x

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Josephine Mulligan – 1 point, 1 ace, 8 digs, 13 set assists

Audrey Buis – 8 points, 8 kills, 3 digs

Lara Gomes de Castro – 1 point, 1 ace, 3 digs

Morgan Netcott – 24 digs, 1 set assist

Paige Parlanti – 13 points, 1 ace, 12 kills, 13 digs, 1 set assist

Alexis Chrappa – 5.5 points, 5 kills, 1 block assist, 2 digs, 1 set assist

Nisa Salis – 5 points, 4 kills, 2 block assists, 2 digs

Tuana Turhan – 2.5 points, 2 kills, 1 block assist, 2 digs, 1 set assist

Hannah Graber – 7 digs, 13 sets assists

Malgorzata Banasiak – 5 points, 4 kills, 2 block assists, 2 digs