Huskies volleyball earns another split weekend at home
Trending
HOUGHTON -- With a loss to the No. 1 Ferris State Bulldogs in three sets Friday and then a sweep of the Davenport Panthers Saturday, the Michigan Tech Huskies volleyball team returned home and earned another split weekend. With the split, the Huskies improved to 6-6 on the season overall, and 2-2 in GLIAC play.
Huskies edge out Panthers
The Huskies were looking for a bit of revenge Saturday after losing to Davenport just eight days earlier in five sets. They needed several extra points in the opening set, but won, 30-28. From there, they rolled to 25-21 and 25-23 wins to close out the sweep.
The third set was tied 23-23, when Huskies coach Cindy Pindral used a coach's challenge on a play that had been ruled in favor of Davenport. Upon review, the Huskies were awarded the point, giving freshman outside hitter Kayla Heinonen her 11th kill of the match. Heinonen then served what would end up being the game-winning point when senior outside hitter Rachel Zurek's spike hit the floor, sealing the set and match win.
"That was a little bit wild," said Pindral. "That was a dog fight all set three. Kayla took a high hand swing, which is in our game plan. They have a very big block. So, we knew that we were going to be able to score points high off the hands. Northern (Michigan) did that (Friday) in their win.
"So, in scouting, we’re like, 'All right, we’re going to hit high and flat off the hands whenever we have opportunities to.' Kayla did that."
Even with that play, there was no guarantee that the referees would see things the same way.
"If I’m being honest, I did not necessarily think that there was a total touch there, but I had two challenges to burn, and I was out of timeout, so I figured, I don’t know, let’s slow it down, see what happens," Pindral said. "Maybe we’ll win the next point, get a break, and push it to extra innings, so to say. But, then they found something, and there you go."
That challenge worked in the Huskies' favor, but Michigan Tech did a lot of good things throughout the match as they bounced back from a tough loss Friday.
"I think for our team, one of our big mottos is how we respond, and how we rebound," said Pindral. "We’re not expecting to beat every single team. We’re not expecting to dominate every single point of every single day. So, when we face adversity, and when we find ourselves down or challenged or whatever it is, how we respond is what really matters."
The Huskies did not shy away from going into extra points to win the first set.
"I feel like we were kind of playing medium, just kind of waiting around, hanging around in that first set, seeing what was going to happen, maybe waiting for them to make an error or two," Pindral said. "I called a timeout when we were still a few points up, maybe three or four points up, but it kind of felt like we were just kind of taking it easy, not really pressing on the gas, and kind of got on him a little bit.
"I was like, 'We need to have a killer mentality here. We cannot wait around for teams to make errors, because it’s not going to happen. We need to put our foot on the gas. We need to put constant pressure on any team that we play.'"
From there, the Huskies did that, winning the second and third sets.
"It’s so important, especially going into our Northern game this Tuesday," said Heinonen. "I think to come off of a sweep is just going to be so important, even just for our whole season going 1-1. That’s our goal with teams. We need to, at least, be splitting at minimum."
Zurek led the Huskies with 12 kills. Junior middle blocker Paige Wagner led the service game with three aces. She also had three blocks, as did Heinonen.
Huskies fall to Bulldogs in sweep Friday
The Huskies dropped all three sets in a sweep at the hands of the Bulldogs Friday. Ferris State won 25-19, 25-16, and 25-18.
Despite the score, the Huskies battled, especially defensively, against the nation's top team.
"Our preparation was good," said Pindral. "We were dialed in in practice all week. We knew what they were about. We had giant blockers on the box all week, practicing against big blockers. We changed up our blocking schemes so that we were triple blocking. I don’t know if anyone noticed that, but Rachel was coming over to triple block sometimes, and it was effective, frankly.
"So, I don’t know, I felt like we were good on a game plan. We gave ourselves a good opportunity, but then we just couldn’t really score. Our defense was good. We were, except for the last couple, maybe the last 10 points, we were neck-and-neck with our serve and pass. We had equal numbers of aces to errors."
The Huskies blocked well, as senior middle blocker Tricia Kennedy had two, Wagner had one, and sophomore setter Madelynn Kreider had one, but the Huskies could not find an answer for Gabby Piazza, who racked up a match-high 21 kills.
"Their setter moves the ball around so well, and we knew that from the scouting report," said Pindral. "There’s a reason she’s an All-American, for sure. I feel like we gave ourselves opportunities. We’re hanging, but it’s exhausting to play against a team like that who is just constant pressure."
Michigan Tech took an early 3-2 lead in the first set, and was still even at 7-7, but from there, the Bulldogs took over and rolled from there to the set win.
Wagner led the Huskies with four kills in the set. She finished with a team-high eight for the match.
In the second set, the Huskies led 7-4 after a Kennedy kill, one of her seven in the match. But the Bulldogs stormed back. Michigan Tech again moved ahead by three, 11-8, when Wagner picked up another kill, but Ferris State again evened things at 12-12. The Huskies evened it again at 14-14, but, from there, the Bulldogs never looked back.
Pindral likes what she is getting from Kennedy.
"She's steady," Pindral said. "In the scouting report, we knew that they were going to commit to our outside attacker, so we knew that they were going to have a big double block on our outside, which usually leaves our middle and our right side 1-on-1 on 1-on-none at times.
"It’s been in the game plan since I moved to Houghton. Ferris has been doing that for as long as I know. So, it’s always been in the game plan to set our middles and right sides often. But, the trouble is they’re so good defensively that it’s still hard to score. Tricia finds ways to score. She’s up a lot in transition. She’s talking a bunch. She puts in a ton of work."
After a Kreider ace in the third set, the Huskies led 7-3, but Ferris State fought back until the score was tied at 9-9. Things were knotted again at 10-10, but from there, the Bulldogs never looked back.
Up next
The Huskies are back in action Tuesday as they travel to Marquette to face the Northern Michigan Wildcats. The match is set to start at 6 p.m. at Vandament Arena.