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PITTSBURG —
The Pittsburg State volleyball team — an intriguing mix of veteran players and talented newcomers from assorted places — began its 2012 season Friday morning with a straight-set win over Illinois-Springfield (25-22, 25-18, 27-25) in the first match of the Pitt State Volleyball Classic at Pittsburg High School.
Brooke Fay, a four-year varsity contributor and one of two seniors (along with Leah Flynn) who played as freshmen on the 2009 NCAA Tournament squad, touched on what made the first match win special for the veteran players.
“We’ve been working really hard and like I’ve told everyone, that was the first match of the season that any of us have won and I’m a senior now,” Fay said. “That’s really an awesome feeling knowing that we were able to win in three. We obviously had errors and we can do better but I think it was a good start.”
Pitt State gained an early lead in the final set, leading at various points 5-0, 10-2, 12-4 and 14-6 before the PrairieStars of Illinois-Springfield (Great Lakes Valley Conference member) caught up at 20-all and began alternating points and side-outs with the Gorillas as if the PrairieStars did not want to waste their nearly 400-mile voyage to Pittsburg.
However, after one more tie at 25, Pitt State went to true freshman Crystal Whitten (Wichita Heights) on consecutive rallies and she delivered back-to-back kills for game, set and match.
“Really glad that we were able to respond in a lot of ways when the chips were down and we really had to hold our consistency and our composure, especially in the third set,” Pitt State head coach Ibraheem Suberu said. “It was great to see the team respond to the challenge. Our point scoring is getting better. Our setters seem to be doing a better job of putting the attackers in a position to succeed and we feel as long as we can handle our serve receive, we have a lot of opportunities to go our way down the road.”
Responding positively to a challenge and closing out an opponent especially pleased Fay about Opening Day.
“The past two years, we’ve been in that situation several times and we haven’t executed well at finishing the games,” Fay said. “This game, we were able to finish and I think that’s promising going into the season.”
Sophomore outside hitter Paula Okrutna (Pila, Poland and Fort Scott Community College) made her Pitt State debut with a team-high 10 kills and Whitten finished right behind Okrutna with nine kills. Both players were above 40 percent attacking — Okrutna 42.9 and Whitten 41.1.
The Pittsburg State volleyball team — an intriguing mix of veteran players and talented newcomers from assorted places — began its 2012 season Friday morning with a straight-set win over Illinois-Springfield (25-22, 25-18, 27-25) in the first match of the Pitt State Volleyball Classic at Pittsburg High School.
Brooke Fay, a four-year varsity contributor and one of two seniors (along with Leah Flynn) who played as freshmen on the 2009 NCAA Tournament squad, touched on what made the first match win special for the veteran players.
“We’ve been working really hard and like I’ve told everyone, that was the first match of the season that any of us have won and I’m a senior now,” Fay said. “That’s really an awesome feeling knowing that we were able to win in three. We obviously had errors and we can do better but I think it was a good start.”
Pitt State gained an early lead in the final set, leading at various points 5-0, 10-2, 12-4 and 14-6 before the PrairieStars of Illinois-Springfield (Great Lakes Valley Conference member) caught up at 20-all and began alternating points and side-outs with the Gorillas as if the PrairieStars did not want to waste their nearly 400-mile voyage to Pittsburg.
However, after one more tie at 25, Pitt State went to true freshman Crystal Whitten (Wichita Heights) on consecutive rallies and she delivered back-to-back kills for game, set and match.
“Really glad that we were able to respond in a lot of ways when the chips were down and we really had to hold our consistency and our composure, especially in the third set,” Pitt State head coach Ibraheem Suberu said. “It was great to see the team respond to the challenge. Our point scoring is getting better. Our setters seem to be doing a better job of putting the attackers in a position to succeed and we feel as long as we can handle our serve receive, we have a lot of opportunities to go our way down the road.”
Responding positively to a challenge and closing out an opponent especially pleased Fay about Opening Day.
“The past two years, we’ve been in that situation several times and we haven’t executed well at finishing the games,” Fay said. “This game, we were able to finish and I think that’s promising going into the season.”
Sophomore outside hitter Paula Okrutna (Pila, Poland and Fort Scott Community College) made her Pitt State debut with a team-high 10 kills and Whitten finished right behind Okrutna with nine kills. Both players were above 40 percent attacking — Okrutna 42.9 and Whitten 41.1.
Freshman setter Hayley Hansford (Shawnee Mission East) had 14 assists in her first collegiate match.
“You can see in terms of statistics, adjustment has been very great,” Suberu said. “All of our new players have made a great adjustment of learning the tempo and timing of what we do and of course, they saw some success. We anticipate that will continue but our veterans, everything goes through them and were able to hold our team together. Give credit to all the veterans.”
Fay had seven kills, six digs, one solo block and one ace. Leah Flynn added five kills, including two big ones to close out the first set. Rebecca Pearson led Pitt State with 22 assists and had six digs. Christa McCaw had 11 digs.
Connor Borgmeier of Illinois-Springfield led all players with 14 kills and was joined in double-digits by Ann Nottingham (12) and Kellie Mafaffey (10). Rebeka Pruemer totaled a match-high 34 assists, and Borgmeier and Nottingham finished in a match-high tie in digs (11) with McCaw of Pitt State.
