Volleyball

MILWAUKEE/GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Mount Mary University volleyball squad had a great week, posting a pair of dual victories and upping its overall record back to .500 on the season at 4-4 overall. Tuesday, the Blue Angels held off a strong squad from Chicago's Moody Bible Institute 21-25, 25-16, 25-20, 26-24 then swept Grace Bible College on the road Saturday 25-16, 25-12, 25-12.

Against the Archers of MBI, the Blue Angels lacked proficiency on offense—hitting just .087 in the first stanza—and faced an early one-set deficit because of it. Yet head coach Kelsey Peterson liked the way Mount Mary responded.

"While we came out energetic, I think we also initially underestimated MBI," Peterson said. "As the first set continued on and MBI warmed up, we failed to adjust. However, our team recognized Moody's potential in the next three sets and rose to the occasion."

Junior outside Stephanie Hardwick (West Allis, Wis.), sophomore outside Sarah Wishau (Racine, Wis.) and sophomore right side Stephanie Gratz all tallied double-digit kills with 14, 13 and 12 respectively. Senior setter Chelsie Beeler tallied 40 assists as well.

"We became scrappier and ran more options on offense," Peterson said. "They dug their heels in and had more of a fighter mentality along with energy."

While the offense picked up, hitting a solid .289 in the second set, defensively Mount Mary began communicating more in the back row and picking up attempts from the Archer attackers. Five Blue Angels tallied double-digit digs in the four-set match with Wishau and Hardwick leading the way with 17 digs apiece. Sophomore Beth Baxter added a season-high 12 digs while Gratz and Beeler each added 11.

Statistically speaking, Moody Bible actually out-hit (.167 hitting percentage versus .153 for MMC), out-dug (80 to 79) and out-blocked (7.0 to 1.0) Mount Mary but the Blue Angels cashed in from the service line, registering a whopping 10 service aces to the Archers' one.

Saturday Mount Mary boarded a shuttle for a 6-hour drive to Grace Bible College in Grand Rapids, Mich., to take on the Tigers for the second time this season. Much like the season opener for both teams, the Blue Angels dominated all facets of the game in a match that took just under an hour to complete.

"After already matching up against GBC in our tournament at the start of the season, we knew what we wanted to work on this time around," Peterson said. "We improved on running a quicker tempo with a lot more options. We also worked on placement serving.

"After this match I feel like the team's cohesion had improved because they were talking a lot more and having fun out there, which I love to see."

Statistics for the Grace Bible match were unavailable, but Peterson gave special recognition to sophomore Dani Christian (Pelican Lake, Wis.) who stepped up and contributed with an ace and played well in the back row in her first start of the season.

Mount Mary will return to the road next weekend when it travels northward to University of Wisconsin-Washington County Friday night before heading to Gary, Ind., for a triangular against Indiana University Northwest and Lincoln Christian University.