Fairfield, Ill. – Despite freshman outside hitter Sidney Foster watching from the bench, crutches and all, the Wabash Valley volleyball team still won its' season opener over Frontier Community on Saturday, three sets to two.

But the victory was made tougher by the loss of Foster, who landed wrong on her left side on a kill attempt in the first set of her first regular-season college match. The extent of the injury may be determined on Monday with a follow-up doctor's exam.

"We survived," said Warrior coach Mark Colvin after the game. "It took the whole team."

Despite the loss of Foster, WVC (1-0) won the first two sets, 25-16 and 25-19 for a commanding 2-0 advantage in the non-conference matchup.

But the homestanding Bobcats won the third set, 25-20, then overcame a deficit to win the fourth, 25-23 to even the match and set up a winner-take-all fifth game to 15 points.

Colvin said it was all-hands-on-deck at that point..

"Individuals came up big for us at times, then we formed into a team to take it home. We had lineups we've never even worked with before," he said.

There was a total of nine ties in the final game alone, before the Warriors finally prevailed, 15-13.

For the match, sophomore Andrea Angular Mangual led the Warriors with 13 kills, followed by freshman Malena Bixby with 12.

Freshman Caelyn Nelson had 15 digs on defense, while Mariah Jones had three blocks.

The Warriors two setters were busy as well. Freshman Kassidy Drone had 33 assists, while sophomore returnee Valerie Ramos Allende totaled 30.

Nelson also led the team with 20 serve receives.

Wabash Valley has a 12-day layoff ahead of its' next game, the Feb. 4 home opener against John A. Logan in the Great Rivers Athletic Conference debut as well. The first serve will be at 6:30 p.m. at Spencer Sports Center.