The IUS Volleyball Team defeated Kentucky Wesleyan University for its first home win on Monday, Sept. 13, in the Activities Building.
The Grenadiers lost a close first set, 25-22, but pushed back by winning the next three, 25-10, 25-17 and 25-18.
“I don’t know what they were doing the first set,” Lesley Drury-Prather, IUS Volleyball head coach, said. “I have no idea who that team was, but thank goodness they woke up and came alive to pull off the next three.”
The Grenadiers kept the first set close but couldn’t put the Panthers away.
“We beat ourselves the first game,” Julie Roeder, freshman outside hitter, said. “That’s all there really is to it.”
After losing the first set, the Grenadiers dominated the second, jumping out to a 20-6 lead.
“The Grenadiers just played excellent defense tonight,” Craig Brown, Kentucky Wesleyan head coach, said. “Their passing was excellent. They stayed in system a lot, which is great, and they made smart decisions.”
Katie Johnson, freshman setter, led the Grenadiers with 31 of the team’s 37 assists, and Lauren McCartin, junior libero, led the team with a match high nine digs.
Despite dropping the first set, Drury-Prather said she was pleased with their play the rest of the match.
“After the first set, I basically said this is not the team that I see in practice everyday,” Drury-Prather said. “I just demanded that we get our old team back, and then the second set was the best they played tonight.”
Jade Troutman, freshman middle hitter, had a match high 12 kills, followed by Roeder with 11 kills.
“We played really well tonight,” Troutman said. “We’ve had some trouble in the past coming together, but, tonight, we were all talking, and whenever we are all talking it really comes together and everything clicks.”
The win against the Panthers brings the Grenadiers’ record to 3-7 so far this season.
“We are really tired of losing,” McCartin said. “So we have gotten to the point where we know we have to fight through it instead of just going through the motions.”
The Grenadiers hope to build upon their home victory.
“We just want to go forward from here,” Roeder said. “We have been on a roller coaster up and down, and, hopefully, we are going to stay up and keep winning.”
Drury-Prather said the Grenadiers needed the win badly, and she was pleased with the outcome.
“That was a really good win for us,” Drury-Prather said. “I am proud of them for coming back after losing that first set and for coming back and playing the way they did.”
By NIKOLETTE
LANGDON
Staff
nlangdon@umail.iu.edu
