Volleyball falls shy of regional title
In the finals of the 2010 NCAA Midwest Regional, the University of Indianapolis volleyball team fell to the second seeded Grand Valley State Lakers on Nov. 21.
“Grand Valley State was a very strong team and when they make mistakes they bounce back,”head volleyball coach Jody Butera said. “My team didn’t bounce back fast enough.”
The Greyhounds came out on top in the first set with the final score being 25-15, and sophomore outside hitter Kourtney Crawford contributing six points and six digs.
With an ace serve from Grand Valley State’s sophomore setter Olivia Kohler, the second set ended with the score of 24-26.
University of Indianapolis volleyball players senior setter Cheneta Morrison and junior middle hitter Courtney Anglemyer defend UIndy’s side of the court on Oct. 8 against Kentucky Wesleyan in the Ruth Lilly Fitness Center. The team went on to partake in the finals of the NCAA MIdwest Regionals this season. Photo by Chris Hartley.
The Lakers had a 10 point lead before the Greyhounds where able to light up the score board. Grand Valley State eventually took the set with the score of 25-17.
“We struggled communicating and we let too many runs go,” Crawford said.
Early on in the fourth set the Greyhounds made a 6-0 run. However, the Lakers bounced back and tied it all up to 8-8 and eventually won the set with the score 23-25.
With a 4-0 run in the middle of the set, Grand Valley State won the set 9-15, earning it’s eighth regional crown.
“The girls fought really hard and it came down to it’s the team [UIndy] making little mistakes and those little mistakes added up,” Butera said.
The Greyhounds broke the top seeded Hillsdale Chargers 26 match winning streak by defeating them in the semi-finals on Nov. 20.
According to Butera, UIndy’s defense and offense is great. However, ball control was the team’s biggest challenge.
The lead was held by the Greyhounds with the Chargers never more than three points behind until they tied it up 20-20.
The next point belonged to Hillsdale, putting the Chargers in the lead for the first time in the match. However, UIndy came back scoring the last four points of the set, making the final score of the set 25-21.
Hillsdale came back and won the next two sets with the score of 17-25 and 21-25 respectively.
Before the fourth set Butera started Kourtney Crawford on the first row while Callahan moved from outside hitter to libero.
Throughout the set there was a total of eight ties until Hillsdale pushed in the lead with the score of 11-15 at which point UIndy called for a time out.
Changes proved affective as the Greyhounds won the next two sets, launching them into the regional championship.
“We really wanted to win,” Butera said. “ We made changes throughout the game, and we won as a team.”
In the opening round of the Midwest Regional on Nov. 19, the Greyhounds won the first set with the score of 25-16 against the Northern Michigan Wildcats.
The Wildcats came back in the second set by taking the lead 8-5. The Greyhounds scored four more points which lead UIndy to their second set victory of the game.
With four lead changes and eight ties, the third set ended with Wildcats winning their first set of the match with the score of 24-26.
During the first half of the set the Wildcats took the lead with score of 5-6, until the Greyhounds tied up the score 13-13. There were five ties total through out the match.
The Wildcats ended the game with a service error sealing the fourth consecutive first round win at the NCAA Midwest Regional for the Greyhounds.
“The freshmen are getting a taste of what it takes to get to the Elite Eight so really it’s a win-win situation,” Butera said. “The freshmen will be hungry get back to where we were at.”
