ST.CHARLES, MO. - The Lindenwood women's volleyball team fell in a heartbreaking five sets to the SEMO Redhawks on Friday night in Hyland Arena.
"Looking at the box score, we outplayed SEMO in virtually every category, unfortunately in volleyball, it's about winning those three sets," said Head Coach
Will Condon. "We have to give SEMO credit that they made the plays they needed to to win three. They kept making adjustments to personnel and we did not do a good enough job with our serve in sets four and five to take away options."
OVERVIEW
The Lions were extremely dominant, taking the first set in a 25-11 victory. The Redhawks answered back by forcing things into overtime in the second set, squeezing out a 25-27 victory in the end, taking the second set from the Lions.
Lindenwood responded with another strong set, winning the third by a whopping 25-14 final score. Yet again, SEMO was able to answer with a 18-25 victory in the fourth set, forcing things into a fifth set. The Lions and the Redhawks both fought hard in the fifth, with things being back and forth from both teams for the majority of the team. The Redhawks were able to find the win in the end, however, grabbing a 13-15 victory.
Despite the loss,
Mackenzi Sifuentes and
Rebecca Janke were an offensive tandem, tallying 19 and 14 kills respectively. The pair combined for a total of nine blocks, with Janke leading the team with her six total blocks and Sifuentes adding three to her stat line.
Abby VanBuskirk had an impressive 51 assists while also contributing 14 digs and three blocks to her stat line, making for a strong overall performance.
LEADERS
Mackenzi Sifuentes (19 K, 3 blocks, 2 ACE .480 %)
Rebecca Janke (14 K, 6 blocks, .542 %)
Abby VanBuskirk (51 AST, 14 digs, 3 blocks)
Jessie Seidel (18 digs, 4 AST, 1 ACE)
"I thought we did a lot of good things, to hit at that level over 5 sets is an accomplishment," said Condon. "Both Rebecca and Kenzi had ridiculous matches. It's tough for us as coaches to accept that as a loss for the team."
UP NEXT
Lindenwood will head to Little Rock this Friday for a 6:00PM start time in Arkansas.
