Siena Heights University outplayed the Archers this Thursday
Siena Heights Fieldhouse saw some superb display of volleyball skill by the host team, the Siena Heights University men’s volleyball team on Thursday. Their opponents were outperformed in almost every area of the game, particularly in serving and spiking. Inevitably, Siena was able to beat the Moody Bible Institute by making a clean sweep over them in both of the two matches.
The set scores at the end of the first match were 25-8, 25-15, 25-16, commendable for Siena but a glaring disappointment for Moody. The losing team was able to perform only slightly better in the second match, which ended in set scores of 25-21, 25-12, 25-14.
The recent win has brought the Saints overall season wins to six against the same number of losses. Whereas in the Mid-America Men's Volleyball Intercollegiate Conference, Siena has lost two matches and registered four victories.
The initial set of the first match started off with a spark as Juan Sierra, a junior in the Saints team served a speeding ace in the first serve to secure a point. The Archers did not let it sit well with them and responded by taking a 3-2 lead but the advantage was short lived. The Saints ticked up their score by making five consecutive points on the serve of junior Tim O’Brein. Once the lead was obtained by the Saints, they continued to exert their dominance all through the match whereas the Archers could not gather themselves together to put up a coordinated response. Credit of putting such a dismantling affect on Moody goes to Jeffery Hardman and Luke Sagaert of the Saints, whose blocking skills were impassable for the Archer’s attack.
Mike Watkins, the coach of the Saints commented on his team performance at the end of the match in the following words: “We haven’t played a varsity match at home in quite a while. We were fired up to play at home and played with excitement and emotion.”
Home ground provided just the right sort of ingredients for the Saints to make a flawless win in the second and third sets of the first match as well. It seemed as if the Archers had lost heart as the second set was given away to Siena at 25-15. However, Moody stepped up their game a notch in the third game of the set and was able to tie the game at three different points. But that is all that the Archers were able to do and eventually the last set of the match was taken by the Saints at 25-16.
Moody went into the second match with a different mindset and it showed in their improved performance. Accordingly, the first set was closely contested at 25-21, but it ended in favor of the Saints. After that, the Archers lost their steam and gave away the remainder of the two sets on very disappointing notes: 25-12 and 25-14.
By the time Thursday reached its end, the Saints had registered an overwhelming number of 71 kills. They were also able to record 25 blocks and 65 assists.
“I was pleased to see my team get frustrated with themselves during some of their letdowns,” Watkins said. “We made the necessary changes on the floor, instead of waiting for the other team to falter, and I was really happy to see that.”
Tags: