The Lawrence volleyball team had a successful week, winning their match on Sept. 20 and two out of their three matches at the MSOE Quadrangular Saturday. After coming out of the week with three wins and just a single loss (against a tough Wisconsin Lutheran College team), the team is currently ranked first in the conference.
“I think we are in a much better place than we were last year at this time,” commented sophomore Diane McLeod.
After the Lawrence Quadrangular on the 17th, the Vikings faced off against Carroll, who they defeated 3-1. Lawrence came out swinging in the first two games, defeating the Pioneers 25-14 in the first game, and 25-19 in the second. Junior Beth Larsen noted that the team came out with “a lot of energy” in the first two games.
“We minimized our mistakes, and forced them to make errors,” said Larsen.
However, Carroll wasn’t about to go down without a fight, as they came back in game three to beat the Vikings 34-32 after a hard fought match. The Lawrence ladies took the initiative again in game four to win the match with a 25-20 win over the Pioneers.
Saturday’s Quadrangular at MSOE proved to be just as fortuitous for the Lawrence team, as they came out with great intensity to sweep their first two opponents, MSOE and Finlandia.
“Our blocking was greatly improved and our hitters were on fire the first two matches,” said Larsen of the team’s performance.
MSOE proved to be a tough opponent, as Lawrence only won the first and third games by two points, with the score of the third game going beyond the usual win cap of 25. McLeod noted that MSOE “employed a line-up that our team has never played against before.”
“They had their setter setting out of middle front, which is unusual,” said McLeod.
The Vikings didn’t let this shake them though, as they swept MSOE in three games.
Finlandia proved to be no match for Lawrence, as the Vikings easily defeated them 25-6 in game one, 25-11 in game two, and 25-12 in game three. The Lawrence ladies used this opportunity to try out different line-ups and give the non-starters on the team some playing time.
Lawrence’s final opponent of the MSOE Quadrangular, Wisconsin Lutheran College, proved to be the Vikings’ most difficult match up, as the WLC Warriors narrowly defeated them in three games to win the match. The Warriors took game one by the slim margin of 25-22. The Vikings fought back in game two to win 25-14, but WLC took games three and four by scores of 25-19 and 25-20, respectively.
“The third match [against WLC] was a great game,” commented Larsen. “We played them hard but let them get on too many runs, which cost us the match.”
McLeod noted that WLC was a very strong team defensively, and that despite the loss she felt the team “strengthened their offense immensely by playing such a solid defensive team.”
Both Larsen and McLeod feel that the team is in a good place right now and poised to do well in the future.
“I feel like we’ve learned a lot from every match we’ve played and put ourselves in a great position going into the rest of the season and conference play,” said Larsen.
McLeod felt similarly optimistic, noting that the team “has three great new freshman players.”
“We are a pretty young team and will be able to continue improve our record every year.”