It was a humbling first couple weeks for the Washington University volleyball team. Sporting a young roster and their usual unforgiving schedule, the Bears struggled to beat ranked and unranked teams that they dispatched with ease in 2015. But this weekend, the Red and Green were able to do something that not even last year’s squad could accomplish: beat California Lutheran University.
The No. 19 Bears defeated the No. 1 Regals in five sets on Saturday afternoon in Springfield, Ohio, providing a surprising jolt to what was quickly becoming a forgettable season. In addition to their victory over Cal Lutheran, the Bears also picked up a five-set win over No. 5 Juniata College Friday afternoon, a 3-0 loss to No. 22 Elmhurst College later that day and another five-set victory against Heidelberg University Saturday morning. It wasn’t a perfect weekend, but after starting the season 5-5, the now 8-6 Bears will definitely take it.
Sami Klein | Student LifeThe Bears volleyball team huddles during their game against DePauw earlier this month. The Bears are 8-6 after winning three of four at the Wittenberg Fall Classic this weekend.
“The girls are now very aware it is possible to play with and beat high caliber teams,” head coach Vanessa Walby said. “I think it will help their confidence. And I hope it is something they can build off of.”
After a string of attack errors allowed the Regals to take the equalizing fourth set with ease, the Bears forced five errors and committed just one of their own to jump out to a 7-1 lead in the fifth. In the abbreviated fifth set, that was enough to send the Regals packing.
“Once we had that lead, Cal Lu started crumbling,” senior six-rotation player Rexi Sheredy said.
Last year, the Red and Green lost to Cal Lutheran twice, including a season-ending defeat in the NCAA regional finals. In that final game, the Bears highly experienced up-tempo offense was held punchless by the Regals’ blocking scheme.
This year’s squad is very different. After 2015, the Bears graduated two members of the 1,000 kill club and the 2015 Division III national player of the year at setter. And while this roster turnover has coincided with a dip across the board in Wash. U.’s offensive numbers, Sheredy thinks it was an advantage against the Regals.
“We have a very different team, with a lot of new faces [who] are playing,” Sheredy said. “Cal Lutheran doesn’t know how these people play or how they swing.”
One of those question marks was sophomore outside hitter-right side hitter hybrid Ifeoma Ufondu. Last season, Ufondo played in 18 of the Bears’ 37 matches and collected 41 kills. But on Saturday, she paced the Bears offense to the tune of 18 kills and just three errors. Another unknown, freshman outside hitter Shannon Gurley added 12 kills from the wing. Guiding them both was freshman setter Chloe Stile. After splitting time at the position with sophomore Savannah Zhang, Stile took the lead this weekend, distributing 49 assists against Cal Lutheran and setting a career-high 55 assists against Heidelberg earlier in the day.
Capitalizing on their own youth, the Bears mustered a .196 hitting percentage—their highest against a ranked opponent all season. Conversely, the Bears defense took advantage of the Regals’ predictability.
“Cal [Lutheran] didn’t really mix up their shots, so when they kept swinging and swinging, it was easy digs for us,” Sheredy said. “And when they started tipping, we knew they were going to start tipping because they’d come out of a timeout or the swings hadn’t worked. And we were always ready for it.”
The Bears held the Regals to a 0.092 hitting percentage, nearly .200 points lower than their season average. Sheredy, who only played the back line this weekend in order to avoid aggravating an ankle injury suffered last weekend, credited the team’s blockers for the strong defensive performance.
“When the block is phenomenal, it’s so easy for the defense to read around it because the ball is being channeled perfectly to where you’re positioned,” Sheredy said.
“As far as giving credit, it has to go to our middles, Caroline [Dupont] and Julianne [Malek]. They worked so hard in that match to close all of the blocks to make it easier for our defense,” Walby said, echoing the same sentiment.
After a rigorous last two weeks, the Bear get to look forward to two softer games this week. On Tuesday, they travel to Greenville College and on Thursday they will host Webster University.