V-Hawks Begin Season with a Pair of Ranked Matchups

CALDWELL, Idaho – The Viterbo University Women's Volleyball team, ranked #5 in the NAIA Women's Volleyball Preseason Top 25 Coaches Poll, began their 2024 season on Friday with a pair of matchups against two more top 25 teams. The V-Hawks fell to #15 Western Montana 2-3 (19-25, 25-22, 25-27, 25-13, 15-17) to start the day, then lost to #3 Eastern Oregon, 1-3 (23-25, 25-18, 14-25, 18-25). The V-Hawks now sit at 0-2, while the Bulldogs are 1-1 and the Mountaineers improve to 2-0.

Maddie Connor started the year with a service ace and Casey Franklin quickly added back-to-back kills. The bulldogs rallied back to take a 6-4 lead before a Jada Mitchell-Grace Peyron block put Viterbo back up 7-6. Despite a Mia Quist ace and Sadie Treptow kill, Western Montana continued to build their lead. Late kills from Izzy Jahr and Mitchell were not enough as WMU took the first set 25-19. 

VU would start the second set with a Connor-Martina McGrath block quickly followed by a Hailee Halverson-McGrath block and a McGrath solo block to go up 4-1. Mitchell's kills helped pace the V-Hawks offense as did another McGrath-Treptow block. The bulldogs would manage to take a lead 18-17 but errors helped the V-Hawks take the lead back and McGrath supplied three late kills to lead the V-Hawks to a 25-22 set win. 

Treptow and Mitchell supplied kills and blocks early to help the v Hawks build an 8-3 lead in the third, while Jahrs kills continued to sustain it. Halverson recorded a solo block to go up 15-9, but the Bulldogs battled back to claim a 22-21 lead. Mitchell took the lead back for the V-Hawks with a kill, 23 -22, but WMU was able to prevail 27 to 25. 

In the 4^th, kills by McGrath and an ace by Connor, helped the V-Hawks build an early lead. Peyron and Mitchell paced the scoring as the Hawks were able to keep a comfortable lead for much of the set. A late Treptow kill sparked a 9-2  run that saw kills from Franklin and Mitchell and a Grace check ace for the v Hawks to win 25 to 13. 

Both teams committed various errors to start a back and forth deciding fifth set while Treptow and McGrath combined for a pair of blocks to go up 7-4. Western Montana went on a 5-1 run to take the lead back and despite late a late block from Treptow and Cailie Kowal and a Kennedy McCabe service ace, the bulldogs persisted for the 17-15 match win. 

Mitchell led the v Hawks with 12 kills while hitting .233 and Jahr added 11. Connor supplied 20 assists as Kowal added 19, and  McCabe recorded 19. Digs. McGrath LED all players with nine total blocks. Daniel Martin had 15 kills for the bulldogs. Kaylee Fritz had 23 assist and Kelsey Goddard had 20 digs.

In the first set against Eastern Oregon, Viterbo would jump out to an early 7-2 lead behind service aces from Connor and McCabe, as well as a Treptow-Mitchell block. The Mountaineers began to close the gap but McGrath helped keep the V-Hawks in control and Peyron put VU ahead 20-15 with a kill. That's when EOU took over, scoring 10 of the final 13 points and taking the first set 25 to 23. 

Halverson and McGrath produced early kills as he V-Hawks took another early lead in the second 9-4. McGrath had back-to-back kills and Quist added one. McCabe served an ace, and after a Treptow-McGrath block, Jahr ended the set with a kill, 25-18.

Eastern Oregon would take early control of the third set 12-3. Mitchell and Jahr's kills led the Viterbo offense, but it was not enough and Eastern Oregon took a controlling lead and scored fournstraight to win 25-14.

Jahr recorded a pair of early kills in the fourth set and Mitchell added two more but Eastern Oregon began to pull away in the fourth set as well. McGrath's kills ended the run by the Mountaineers and Check recorded back-to-back aces as the V-Hawks tried to rally late. However, it would come too late and EOU would win the 4th 25-18. 

McGrath led the V-Hawks with 12 kills on .280 hitting while Mitchell added 11 on .240. Connor had 19 assists while Kowal had 15 and McCabe recorded 19 digs. Mitchell had seven total blocks. Kira Vaughn had 17 kills for the Mountaineers and Alexis Murray led all players with 24 assists. 

The V-Hawks return to action on Saturday August 17th taking on Arizona Christian and the College of Idaho.