CEDARVILLE, Ohio – The Glenville State Volleyball team dropped a pair of matches today in the final day of the Cedarville Invitational. The Pioneers fell 3-1 in both games and combined for 65 kills and 56 assists over the two matches.
Game 1 vs Shepherd
The Rams kicked off the game hot, jumping out to an early 4-0 lead. The Pioneers got their first points of the set on a Shepherd service ace. After trimming the SU lead to just two, the Rams scored six-straight points to go up by eight, 14-6. Glenville State's offensive struggles continued throughout the remainder of the set as Shepherd ran away with a 25-13 first set victory.
GSU started the second set much hotter, using multiple service aces and a Katarzyna Niderla kill to gather a 6-3 advantage. The Pioneers grew their lead to as much as nine with Nalaina Funk garnering three kills in that span, forcing the Rams to call a timeout down 13-4. The Rams began to fight back, cutting the Pioneer lead down to just five at 17-12. GSU kept SU at bay until the Rams were able to put together consecutive kills and trim the lead down to just three, causing the Pioneers to take a timeout. Shepherd completed the comeback, finishing the set with a kill and service ace following them tying the set at 23.
The Pioneers were on the board first with three service aces from Sarah Grainger and an error by Shepherd, building a 4-0 lead to start the third set. Shepherd fought back, tying the set up at eight. Glenville State jumped back up to a four-point lead, using multiple kills by Rita Kelly and Katarzyna Niderla to build the advantage. Shepherd fell behind 18-13 and called a timeout to try to stop the Pioneer momentum. The timeout didn't halt the momentum as the Pioneers rolled to a 25-17 set three win.
Both squads traded blows at the start of the fourth set before SU scored five unanswered points and forced Kiara Perkins to burn a timeout. After falling behind 13-4, GSU stormed back to make it a four-point game on the back of kills by Sydney Goodrich, Nalaina Funk and Sarah Mazzaferro. Shepherd widened their lead once again, raising it back up to nine in the later stages of the set. The Rams were able to close out the set on a service error by the Pioneers, winning the set 25-16 and the match 3-1.
Game 2 vs Cedarville
The Pioneers and the Yellow Jackets went back and forth to open the first set with the Pioneers taking a small advantage at 8-7. CU was able to build a small lead on a pair of service aces by GSU. Glenville State stayed close in the set but Cedarville was able to score six of the last seven set points to take set #1, 25-18.
In the second set, Glenville State had kills from Sarah Mazzaferro and Rita Kelly to stay in the set early on. However, CU built a 10-point lead due to the Pioneers struggling offensively and having attack errors. After falling down 24-8, GSU scored five-straight points to soften the blow of the 25-13 second set loss.
The third set was a much different story for the Pioneers, falling behind early by six points but bouncing back quickly to tie it back up at 12 on three kills from Katarzyna Niderla, a service ace fron Sarah Grainger and two attack erros by CU. The Pioneers took their first lead of the set at 15-14 and never gave the lead back up. To close out the set, Glenville State scored the final four points of the set to stay alive, winning 25-22 in set three.
Cedarville got the offense rolling early in the fourth set and didn't look back. After the Pioneers kept it close at 5-5, CU went up 17-7 on kills and a pair of attack errors. The Yellow Jacket lead grew to as much as 13, before finally closing out the set and match to take the win three sets to one.
The Final Stats
Katarzyna Niderla led the Pioneers with 17 kills on the day, including 10 against Cedarville. Sydney Goodrich finished with 12 kills and Rita Kelly had 11 between the two games. Sarah Grainger tallied 25 assists against Shepherd and 23 versus Cedarville. Lindsay Winkler closed out the day with 14 total digs with nine of those 14 coming against CU.
Up Next For The Pioneers
The Pioneers will be in the Waco Center for the first time this season on Tuesday for non-conference action against Salem at 6 p.m.
