VINCENNES, Ind. – There was plenty to celebrate Wednesday night at the Physical Education Complex as the Blazers returned home to play in front of the home crowd for the first time since mid-September and came away with a big Region 24 sweep over Wabash Valley College 25-16, 25-12, 25-15.
The sweep also increases VU's winning streak against Region 24 opponents, which now sits at 33 matches dating back to the 2021 season.
Vincennes sophomore libero Morgan Netcott (Montague, Mich.) was recognized after the match after she surpassed the 1,000 career digs milestone in September at the Wallace State Fall Bash.
"When we were dealing with different injuries and having to play without some big sophomore leaders, Morgan really stepped up and took that leadership role under her belt," VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. "She's not a big hitter. She's not a setter. Typically, you think of the defensive player or libero as more down the list of leaders but she doesn't let that stop her. She's always had that ability and that's one of the main reasons why we recruited her. She knows how to talk to people. She knows how to encourage her teammates and she also knows when to look at her teammates and say, 'let's go'."
"On top of all of that you have to mention what she does in the classroom," Sien added. "Being a First-Team Academic All-American, being recognized as the top student in her department last year. Those are not small feats along with her athletic accomplishments of being a First-Team All-Region player last year. What more can you say about her? She's a great example of what we like our students to be. Not everybody has to be Academic All-American, but we just want everybody to do their best. She has been a great example for our program."
The Trailblazers were also celebrating Faculty and Staff Appreciation Night, where each member of the VU volleyball team invited one member of the VU Faculty to come and be recognized before the for all that they do for Vincennes University, the students and the Vincennes community.
"I always use the phrase 'Student-Athlete', so of course I want to emphasize the student part of that, but you cannot be a student unless you have a teacher," Sien said. "A neat thing about this University is that all of these faculty members have previous work experience and what better way to teach a student than through your own real-world and life experiences rather than just straight out of a textbook. I really appreciate that about this University."
"Similarly, most of the time, one of your professors in your department is going to be your academic advisor, which helps build a great relationship that can last for life," Sien added. "I really believe that if a student does their job, attends class and does the homework, it should be really easy to pass your classes here with all of the help this University offers in professors and tutors. I just cannot say enough about the academic side of Vincennes University and how that is very important when it comes to attracting student-athletes to come to school here."
"We, as a volleyball program, just want to continue to recognize and honor those professors and staff members," Sien said. "We have a tremendous resource of professors and staff here at VU that these students can use down the road on resumes and as references. I've always been very up front about the importance of academics because we want our student-athletes to do extremely well, not just in their sport, but what is probably going to be more important is what they do in the classroom."
The match began with the two teams trading points with VU holding their largest lead at 13-9 midway through the set, before Wabash Valley cut the deficit down to one point at 13-12.
Vincennes would fully break away late in set one, outscoring the Warriors 7-1 and later closing out the set with three unanswered points as VU grabbed set one over Wabash Valley 25-16 and took a 1-0 match lead.
The Blazers looked to carry this momentum into set two but the Warriors put up a really good fight early on, with VU only able to hold a two-point advantage midway through the set.
Vincennes would then use a massive 9-0 scoring run to take complete control of the set and close out the second set on a 4-0 scoring run to take set two 25-12 and gain a 2-0 match lead.
Looking to complete the sweep, the Blazers again got off to a slow start, with the game tied at 10-10 early in set three.
VU would break away with a 5-0 scoring run and continue to grow their lead throughout the rest of the set by trading two points for one as Vincennes pulled away to take set three 25-15 and complete the 3-0 match sweep over Wabash Valley College.
"We've only had two practices out here on the main floor and it really just felt like we were just getting reacquainted with the gym," Sien said. "We haven't played in the main gym since late August and that seems like it was a lifetime ago."
"It was definitely nice to see both sides of the gym pretty well full with fans, family and faculty members," Sien added. "I really thought that the team really enjoyed that tonight. Of course, it was a busy day with the Faculty and Staff Night recognitions, so what we say when we have these special games is that yes, all of this extra stuff is going on, but do not forget that we still have a game to be played."
"I really felt like we focused in on the game really well tonight," Sien said. "I thought that the first set was just okay, which is understandable. We had a long break from warmups to the game. But once we got into the second and third sets, it was pretty established and pretty dominant of a performance."
"I really want to give credit to the team for how they handled everything with the game and coming into tonight," Sien added. "Like how they have handled all of our travel and playing in all of these different states against ranked teams every weekend. Different lineups, people in and people out. All of the nights in hotels and the thousands of miles of being on the road. None of that phased them. They have had a great attitude and they haven't slacked off at all, which is really a credit to them."
"With that, we now move to 9-0 in Region play," Sien said. "Our goal, of course, is to continue the streak and we are really in a nice position right now. We got some of those tough road Region games done early and now a majority of our remaining Region games are at home. We also have a little bit of a break in the schedule here to recover, so our schedule is pretty good for us going forward right now overall."
The VU offense was led by sophomore Paige Parlanti (Las Vegas, Nev.) who came away with 13 kills, a pair of aces, two digs and one block.
Sophomore Audrey Buis (Franklin, Ind.) and freshmen Isadora Dias (Rio Grande de Norte, Brazil) and Laura Tavares (Merida, Venezuela) each recorded six kills for Vincennes Wednesday night.
Buis would go on to add nine digs and one ace, while Dias led the Blazers with six blocks, and one dig and Tavares recorded five blocks and one dig.
Sophomore Kennedy Sowell (Effingham, Ill.) and freshman Elisa Dalla Pozza (Vincenza, Italy) each recorded three kills for VU, with Sowell adding three digs and one block, while Dalla Pozza added two blocks, one dig and one ace.
The VU offense was rounded out by libero Morgan Netcott who came through with one kill to go along with her team-high 12 digs.
The VU offense was again run by sophomore Maecy Johnson (Chrisman, Ill.) and freshman Libby Mehringer (Jasper, Ind.).
Johnson led the Blazers with 18 set assists against Wabash Valley, while also adding five digs and an ace, while Mehringer finished with 14 set assists, two digs and two aces.
Freshmen Grace Flexter (Oblong, Ill.) recorded two digs on the night, while fellow freshmen Dylan DeCoursey (Montgomery, Ind.) and Ellie Reed (Washington, Ind.) each recorded a dig.
Freshman Allison Czyzewski (Louisville, Ill.) played Wednesday night but did not record a stat.
The Trailblazers will be in action this weekend Friday, Oct. 6 and Saturday, Oct. 7 when VU hosts the Showdown on the Wabash.
VU will start the weekend by taking on St. Louis Community College Friday, Oct. 6 at 3 p.m. eastern, before closing out the night against NJCAA Division II No. 19-ranked Wallace State Community College at 7 p.m. eastern.
The Blazers will then return to the floor Saturday, Oct. 7 to close out the weekend against Edison State Community College at 2 p.m. eastern.
"We probably need a couple more games with everybody back just to get back to where we were," Sien said. "It's almost like restarting or starting all over again. But it will definitely be less difficult to do that when you are at home. With all of these home matches coming up and having more practices coming up, our schedule is really favorable for us going forward."
"A couple of weeks ago we had our overall winning streak ended and our goal now is to just start a new streak," Sien added. "We are 2-0, we've got nine matches left before our Region tournament. My challenge to the team right now is set. We've got the band back together. When we get these next couple of matches in and get everybody back used to playing together again, we are going to be better than we were before just because different people had to step up and we found out how different people would handle playing in different positions and they handled it great. Now, once we get to that point, we are going to be a much stronger team than we were prior to people being out and we were pretty good before. But I truly believe that we will be a much better team because of the adversity that we faced these last couple of weeks."
BOX SCORE
Wabash Valley – 16 12 15 x x
VUVB (22-4, 9-0) – 25 25 25 x x
VINCENNES STATS
Grace Flexter – 2 digs
Audrey Buis – 7 points, 1 ace, 6 kills, 9 digs
Dylan DeCoursey – 1 dig
Morgan Netcott – 1 point, 1 kill, 12 digs
Paige Parlanti – 16 points, 2 aces, 13 kills 1 solo block, 2 digs
Isadora Dias – 9.5 points, 6 kills, 1 solo block, 5 block assists, 1 dig
Maecy Johnson – 1 point, 1 ace, 5 digs, 18 set assists
Kennedy Sowell – 3.5 points, 3 kills, 1 block assist, 3 digs
Elisa Dalla Pozza – 5.5 points, 1 ace, 3 kills, 1 solo block, 1 block assist, 1 dig
Laura Tavares – 10 points, 6 kills, 3 solo blocks, 2 block assists, 1 dig
Libby Mehringer – 2 points, 2 aces, 2 digs, 14 set assists
Ellie Reed – 1 dig
