Lady Eagles Win in Ankeny

ANKENY, IA – Emmaus returned from their weeknight trip to Faith Baptist Bible College with a 3-0 victory.

Although not an official MCCC seeding match, the Lady Eagles were eager to play against their first conference opponent.  Set one saw Faith jump out to early leads of 4-1 and 10-6, as Emmaus was plagued by serving and hitting errors at the beginning of the set.  Once the Lady Eagles settled down, the match was a tight back and forth affair until the very end, but timely tough serving by Emma Reibling and Vivienne Yates led the Emmaus to close out the set with a 25-23 score.  "We had some nerves and looked a bit sluggish starting out tonight, but we responded well and kept our heads," commented Coach Pitman.  "In the break we all felt that we could push much harder, and were determined to clean up our play for the rest of the match."

Emmaus made the effort and it paid off, as they controlled sets two and three by scores of 25-12 and 25-9.  "We are talking a lot about playing matches at our tempo, and we accomplished that again tonight.  The ladies have been working very hard at all aspects of the game, but I felt that our offense really shone tonight due to the opportunities they were given by our back row," said Coach Pitman.  "The team is radiating confidence in each other on the court, which is very encouraging."

 

 

Alli Howard had her biggest match of the season, putting down 9 kills with just a single error.  Howard also had 3 aces and 2 assisted blocks, and led the team with 13 points.  Wynne Vandersall had 12 kills and Paige Sweeney had 8 along with 4 assisted blocks.  Hannah Postma dished up 31 assists as the team hit .337 on the night.

Emmaus now looks to their longest road trip of the season as they head to Manhattan, KS for their first official MCCC matches.  The Lady Eagles take on Barclay College and hosts Manhattan Christian College on Friday evening at 5:00 pm and 7:00 pm.