Westmont Volleyball gave Texas at Brownsville (29-1) a run for its money in the final game of play in Pool B at the NAIA National Tournament, but in the end the second-ranked Scorpions edged out the #11 Warriors 3-1 (25-22, 25-19, 23-25, 25-23).
The loss brings an end to the Warriors’ season, giving them a final record of 25-10. Every loss on the year was to a ranked opponent and all but two losses were to teams ranked in the top-10 in the NAIA final national ranking.
“It always hurts to lose, but to end on a note like that, playing like that, makes the loss sting a little bit less,” said Westmont head coach Patti Cook. “We played really well and I told the team after the game that I am proud of the way they played this entire season. We got better as the season progressed. Our improvement really showed in that last match.
“Candice (Adema) was the star of the tournament for us,” reported Cook. “She was the key to the success of our offense. She made great decisions tonight and was very deceptive. A couple of times, she even caught me off guard and set it to our outside where there was a big hole in the block. That shows her experience as a setter. She was the most competitive person out there.”
Freshman middle blocker Marissa Fuerst led the Warriors’ attack, tallying 14 kills in 21 attempts without making an error for a .667 attack percentage.
“Missy had a fantastic game,” noted Cook. “We gave her some specific charges and she executed those very well. She stayed very aggressive and I was proud of the way she worked.
“Sydney (Striff), our other freshman, came out firing and stayed strong,” said Cook. “The performance of both of our freshmen gives me a lot of hope for their futures; especially having now played at the national level. That bodes well for next year.”
Striff, a right side hitter, notched 12 kills and recorded a .280 attack percentage. Also hitting .280 was junior middle blocker Ciara Turner who contributed 10 kills to the Warriors’ cause.
“Ciara Turner is so athletic,” explained Cook. “She was giving UTB’s middles a lot of trouble. Even when she didn’t block them outright, she got her hands on the ball and gave our defense a chance to dig the ball. Offensively, Ciara was really smart with her hits. She wasn’t just hitting straight away into the double block, she was keeping the ball in play. That was really helpful for the momentum of our team.
“(Kristin) Schroeder looked good and scrappy on defense,” said Cook. “Their hitters are very smart and very precise, which makes it hard to play defense. But our team was scrappy and picked up a lot of those attacks. A lot of that was due to Schroeder’s excellent defensive play.”
Schroeder recorded 23 digs and 14 service receptions. Madison Serrano added another 34 serve receptions and eight digs while Tessa Martin posted 27 serve receptions and six digs.
Cook was also pleased with the play of juniors Marie Trudelle and Nichole Miller who shared time at right side hitter.
“Nichole was doing a fantastic job, especially on her block,” said Cook. “However, we made a switch because Marie is just a little more versatile in her offense.
“Marie usually plays middle blocker,” continued Cook. “It was fun to see her come in and play a different role. She was able to hit quicks and slides from the right side. That is what you get when you move a middle blocker to the right side.
“I was also proud of our serving effort today,” added Cook. “We kept the serve on the targets we had selected. We were able to dictate the other team’s offense by serving to certain spots. Because of that, Texas Brownsville was unable to set number nine (Ana Guerra) as much as they would have liked.”
Guerra tallied 16 kills for the Scorpions while Danica Markovic had 23.
Westmont came out ready to play in the first set, keeping pace with UTB.
“The Warriors looked focused,” agreed Cook. “I asked them before the game, ‘What can you control?’ As one, they responded with our mantra this year, ‘Attitude, effort, focus.” I told them I wanted them all to be 100 percent in this game and it was.”
With the set tied at 22-all, Brownsville scored the next three-points to on a kill by Guerra, a Warrior attack error, and a kill by Michelle Maques (10 kills).
The second set started out much like the first with the two teams remaining close. At 12-all, however, Brownsville put together a 6-1 run and the Warriors were unable to recover.
The third set, was an entirely different story.
“The third set is ours,” said Cook. “We have had amazing third sets all season long, including at this tournament. We own the third set. Now if we could just take care of set number two, number four and number five.”
Westmont, which posted a record of 27-8 in the third set this season, actually fell behind 4-0 in the third set against Brownsville. However, the Warriors caught the Scorpions at seven-all.
Down 11-10, Westmont went on a 9-2 run to take control of the set. Fuerst and Trudelle each recorded a kill before teaming up on a block. After a UTB attack error made it 14-11 in favor of the Warriors, Scorpion’s head coach Todd Lowery called a timeout.
Brownsville scored twice out of the timeout on a kill by Guerra and a Westmont attack error to make the score 14-13. Westmont then scored the next five points including two kills by Striff and one by Fuerst. That gave Westmont a 19-13 advantage.
The Scorpions responded, however, tying the game at 22. Kills by Turner and Adema stretched the Warriors lead to 24-22 before UTB’s Vanja Joksic recorded a kill to make the score 24-23. Brownsville’s threat to extend the set into extra points was thwarted by a set-ending kill by Fuerst.
In the fourth set, Westmont recovered from a 14-10 deficit, tying the game at 17 on a kill by Serrano. At 19-all the Scorpions Markovic followed a kill with a service ace to put UTB up 21-19. Serrano produced another kill, but so did Marques, making the score 22-20.
Another kill by Fuerst drew the Warriors to within one before Marques struck again, extending the Scorpion advantage back to two (23-21). The Warriors, again, pulled to within one, this time with a kill by Trudelle, however, the Scorpions grabbed match point (24-22) on a kill by Joksic.
With the match on the line, the ball crossed the net nine times on the next rally before the point was terminated on a kill by Striff, making the score 24-23.
Still match point, Martin’s serve was received by Marques and resulted in a Markovic attack. Schroeder dug the ball which was set by Adema to Serrano. Serrano’s attack was dug by Erica Chimak, setting up another attack by Markovic. This time Markovic’s attack found the ground, bringing the Warriors’ season to an end.
“The match was bitter-sweet,” said Cook. “On one hand I was pleased with the team’s performance. On the other hand, I didn’t want this season to end. We had a great run. We are definitely going to miss the leadership and athletic ability of our three seniors.”
Adema leaves the Warriors with 3,850 assists, third in the Warriors’ career records list. At 8.89 assists per set, she ranks eighth. She also ranks third in attack percentage at .287, having put the ball on the floor 256 times.
Schroeder has 1,484 digs and finishes second on the career dig’s list. During the national tournament, she passed her coach who had 1,441 career digs as a Westmont athlete. Schroeder’s 4.13 career digs per set ranks third.
Also finishing her Warrior career is Kelly Ching who tallied 286 career digs and 344 serve receptions.
