GEORGETOWN, TEXAS - Southwestern Volleyball capped off their regular season with a three-game sweep over conference opponents, Austin College, University of Dallas, and Centenary. The Pirates won nine out of ten sets from Saturday to Sunday and in doing so, secured themselves a spot in the SCAC Volleyball Tournament.
The Pirates faced Austin College, the first and undoubtedly the toughest opponent of the weekend on Saturday.
"Seeing a competitive mindset from start to finish was important to the team's success. Geneva Nedrow set the vibe defensively today and having over seven digs a set today versus Austin College is impressive."
"Finding a deeper level of ball control in crunch time was important today and we were able to distribute more offense to Lily McWhorter and Andie Valenzuela," recaps Coach Flora.
Not only did Nedrow gather 30 digs for 7.5 digs per set, she also came away with four aces on the match leading the team who had nine total. The ball control, as Flora mentioned, was outstanding from their setters with Annika Flora and Claire Romo both tallying 24 assists in the match. McWhorter and Valenzuela made good on their opportunities with 14 and 13 kills respectively, leading the Pirates to a 3-1 over Austin.
The next match on Saturday against Dallas could have been described as a trap game coming off the Pirate's win. However, Southwestern took care of business and rode out a long third set for a 3-0 win against the Crusaders. Southwestern again was dialed in at the service line and racked up nine aces for the match.
"Putting quality pressure on UD was important today and we did just that at the service line. Our work on defense showed up today as well in the team having 22.3 digs a set," describes Flora.
Kills were distributed amongst seven Pirate players but it was Christina Kuras who came out on top of the team with nine on the afternoon versus the Crusaders.
The Pirates rolled to victory in the final game of the weekend against Centenary on Sunday, never allowing the Ladies to eclipse 17 points as the box score read 25-6, 25-15, 25-17 for a 3-0 final in favor of Southwestern. The Pirates combined for 29 aces in three games including 11 in the match against the Ladies. Southwestern ended the weekend on a high note with a little under two weeks to prepare for the conference tournament.
"Setting the tone and playing clean volleyball to begin this match was important for us today. We have seen good development in our mental approach to staying locked into the game plan, but we need to continue to grow in this area as we prepare for this next phase of the season," concludes Coach Flora
Southwestern will play host to the SCAC Volleyball Tournament on November 10th and 11th inside the Robertson Center. There are still games to be played in the conference to determine seeding for the tournament.
