Waldorf, Haskell Snap Eagle's Win Streak
The Faith Lady Eagles volleyball team traveled north to Forest City, Iowa in hopes of keeping their current winning streak alive. The Eagles had won four in a row and five out of their last six matches. However, the Eagles would be ...
The Faith Lady Eagles volleyball team traveled north to Forest City, Iowa in hopes of keeping their current winning streak alive. The Eagles had won four in a row and five out of their last six matches. However, the Eagles would be playing strong NAIA competiton in Waldorf College and Haskell Indian Nations University. "We wanted to be competitive in the matches. Those are the type that really define who you are and how well your system can hold up to tough competition, other than not winning I thought we competed hard," noted coach Lanny Nihart.
Faith first played Haskell and quickly jumped out to two and three point leads, the last being at 22-20. Haskell quickly tied the game and took the lead with an Eagle hitting error. Faith could not muster another point ending in a dissapointing 25-22 loss. The Eagles had numerous opportunitites to end the game with good defensive volleyball but never got the timely kills. "Haskell is very quick at the net and they dig everything. You cannot give a team like that 2nd and 3rd chances, which we did late in the first set. Everyone knows it can be a different match when you win a close first set," noted Nihart.
The Eagles continued to battle in sets two and three but came up short 25-19 and 25-20. Middle hitter Julia Bray led the Faith attack with 10 kills and two blocks. Senior Ariel Dicks contributed seven kills and a 35% attack percentage while junior Natalie Bunjer led the Eagles defensively with 13 digs. Sophomore setter Stephanie Knupp managed 22 assists and 11 digs.
Faith then turned their focus to host Waldorf who earlier in the day defeated Haskell. Again, the Eagles started strong with a 4-0 and 6-1 leads only to watch Waldorf gain their composure and take an 8-6 lead. With good defensive stands and timely tipping the Ealges forged ahead 18-17. Waldorf then was able to recapture the lead enroute to a 25-18 win. Set two found numerous long volley's between the two of which Faith was able to win several but still missed opportunities. "As a team we are trying to identify where we are in a match and what it takes at that time to pull out wins. Like the Haskell match we were competitive but still missing opportunities after our opponents missed serves or had hitting errors or free balls. We will need to shore up that part of our game in the coming weeks," notedNihart. Waldorf's Amanda Walz and Brenna Brigham led a Waldorf surge and a 3-0 match win.
Faith had a season low of kills in a match of six and a negative hitting percent which is very telling."We only had 25 middle attacks and no kills which makes it difficult to win. We made hustle plays which forced Waldorf into turnovers but we did not forge any points from an offensive standpoint. I don't fault our efforts but I am concerned about our execution. During our winning streak it was visible, we need to keep it going against strong teams as well." cited Nihart.
Faith was led by junior Bunjer with two kills and 10 digs with Dicks adding four kills and seven digs. Senior libero Rikki Powell led the team with 17 digs. The Eagles record is even at 8-8 and travel to Dubuque on Tuesday for a non-conference match with Emmaus Bible College.
