On the surface, it would appear that the Washington University women’s volleyball team had a rough time at the Wittenburg University National Quad Tournament.
Wittenburg snapped the Bears’ 31-game winning streak and gave them their first loss of the season on Saturday, three games to none. However, WU book-ended that match by earning big victories against third-ranked Juniata College and sixth-ranked College of Mount St. Joseph.
“Some people will look at the weekend and simply say that we lost a match,” said head coach Rich Luenemann. “But Wittenburg was a very good team, and they had won several matches in a row coming in. Also, since they had the home court advantage, all the ingredients were there.”
The match got off to a thrilling start with a spectacular first game. It featured 16 ties and six lead changes in all, and it reached a 35-35 tie before Wittenburg took the final two points to win. It seemed to let the air out of the Bears, as they lost the next game 30-19. They came back hard in the third game, but it wasn’t enough to keep the streak alive.
On Friday the Bears defeated Juniata, one of the best teams in the country, in Luenemann’s 1,000th match. Over his career, Luenemann has amassed a stellar .718 winning percentage.
The teams traded off the first four games, with the Bears taking games two and four. Then, freshman Nicole Hodgman served up an ace to give WU the 15-13 win in the deciding game.
The Bears played Mount St. Joseph on Saturday after losing to Wittenburg and came out with fire.
“We could have been flat after the loss, but we beat them handily,” Luenemann said.
WU swept the match 30-16, 30-19, 30-28 and recorded 56 kills to only eight errors. Everyone on the team stepped up their play over the weekend, particularly the freshmen.
“One of our brightest aspects was freshman Heidi Pfeiffer,” Luenemann said. “She led us in digs and really came of age. The whole team did a great job considering that this was some of the toughest competition of our season.”
Pfeiffer had 16 digs and matched that with 16 kills in the loss to Wittenburg, and she improved upon that effort with a game-high 23 digs against Juniata. Senior Rebecca Rotello had 37 assists against Wittenberg and 62 against Juniata.
The team successfully worked on the different parts of their game in anticipation of the high-stakes matches that are soon to come.
“Defense was our strongest aspect, like it has been all year,” said Luenemann. “We identified blocking, serving, and passing as areas to try to improve this weekend, and I think we did a good job with that.”
Although they lost a match and their winning streak, the Bears felt good about the weekend’s accomplishments.
“Hey, we’re still 32-1. We’re a good, elite team, that is one of the best in Division III,” Luenemann said. “We have a big bulls-eye on our backs every time we go out there, and our competition this weekend could end up being even more difficult than the Final Four.”
“We improved a few of our weaknesses, and we’ll be ready for the challenge of the rest of the season.”