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PUEBLO, Colo. -- The Wayland Baptist University volleyball team might have suffered through a tough first day at the Colorado State University-Pueblo tournament with two match losses, but there was one definite bright spot. In their hard-fought, five-set match against Eastern New Mexico University Friday afternoon, the team set a new record for match digs with 163, toppling the old mark of 145 which had stood since 2000.
Head coach
Jim Giacomazzi said he was proud of his team's defensive effort, which led to setting the new school record.
"The team has worked very hard on learning to be in the right position with the correct posture," he said. "Tonight was a combination of preparation and the right team on the other side of the net."
In the morning match against Cameron University, the Pioneers fell in three sets, 25-20, 20-15, 25-19 in a contest that saw the team rack up 26 kills, including 12 by
Chelsey Driskill, and 55 digs, with 16 by
Jaharys Archilla and 13 by
Abby Welch. However, the team also had 22 attacking errors, four service errors, 10 receiving errors and two blocking errors.
Giacomazzi said the unforced errors really hurt his squad.
"We had too many unforced errors and went down 5-0 right away because of hitting errors," he said. "Every team out there had service errors today because they just weren't adjusting fast enough.
"Our defense is looking better, but we just don't have the offense down yet. We're not converting free balls into points…we're getting contact but not putting the ball down."
In Wayland's afternoon match against ENMU, the Pioneers showed a lot more spunk, grinding it out and forcing five sets. After winning the first set 25-21, the team dropped a close second set 26-24 and then gave up the third game 25-16. Wayland bounced back in the fourth set to win 26-24, but dropped the final game 15-7.
Giacomazzi didn't hide his disappointment in the outcome of such a hard-fought match.
"They (ENMU) didn't play well, but we played even worse," he said. "We had lots of hitting errors, which was frustrating because a lot of that is due to that 'freshman mentality'."
Wayland and ENMU recorded strikingly similar statistics, as the Zias recorded 55 team kills, 47 assists and 155 digs, while the Pioneers totaled 50 kills, 47 assists and the record-breaking 163 digs. While both teams struggled with service errors, ENMU served up 12 aces, while Wayland managed only three. The Pioneers did outperform the Zias at the net, however, coming up with eight solo blocks and 10 blocking assists compared to their one team block.
Three Pioneers tallied double-digit kills, as Driskill led with 17, followed by
Shahala Hawkins with 14 and
Tania Gomez with 12.
Natasha Giacomazzi came up with 40 of the team's 47 assists, while four team members racked up an impressive number of digs. Archilla recorded a team-high 38, while Giacomazzi came up with 32 and both Gomez and
Cat Wiechmann contributed 29.
The Pioneers square off against the University of New Haven at 10 a.m. CST and Missouri Southern State at 4 p.m. CST. Fans can listen to the games live online at: https://www.network1sports.com/station/mindseye.
