By Matthew Brooks (@brooksie1219)
When it comes to matches at the Charles E. Smith Center, this year’s GW Volleyball squad has been rock solid, and they started off the weekend strong beating Duquesne 3-2. But in their second match this weekend, they had an uncharacteristically poor outing where they were swept 3-0.
“I think we took Duquesne for granted today.” GW Head Coach Katie Reifert said. “We had a really good match yesterday, did some really nice things, but they played well too. I think we felt really comfortable in that win. I don’t know why, because it was a five-setter, went extra points, it was a tough one. So I think we were too comfortable coming into today.”
On Friday in the first match of the weekend, a familiar story unfolded for the GW team: go down 2-1 and take the last two sets. GW was led by a flurry of strong individual performances in this match. Graduate outside hitter Grace Wiczek took command early on in the first set, tacking on four kills within GW’s first 15 points. She would finish the match with 13 kills. Junior outside hitter Salem Yohannes also had a major impact on both sides of the ball, earning a career high 22 kills while hitting .373 and also adding 17 digs for the double double. Senior right-side hitter Liv Womble also tied her career high kill total with 23. And sophomore libero/middle back Penelope Hiepler had one of her strongest performances of the season with her career high 18 digs.
These performances are impressive, but arguably none of them top sophomore setter Maeve Loughran’s 51 assist setting masterclass. GW typically runs a 6-2 rotation splitting setting work between Loughran and fellow sophomore setter Dilara Elmacioglu. But with Dilara unavailable due to injury, they switched to a 5-1 with Loughran taking all of the action at setter. Loughran has stepped up and taken on the added responsibility with grace, and said she felt comfortable right away in the new rotation.
“I think the 5-1 brings a lot of fun with Liv going back row and hitting the C, Sally on the pipe, and I can get more offensive with my dumps.” Loughran said. “I think it’s a different lineup for sure, but I think it’s getting there.”
While Loughran has stepped up to the challenge, she eagerly awaits the healthy return of her teammate.
“I definitely miss Dilara a lot and I hope she gets better.” Loughran said. “She’s my
setter sister.”
Coach Reifert also echoed how well Loghran has adjusted to the new rotation.
“We have traditionally run a 6-2. And so running a 5-1 to be on the court at all times is… It’s a lot, right? Before she was able to come off the court for three rotations, get her mind right, watch Dilara set, watch what the other players were doing, and then come back and implement what she’s seeing off the court. Now when you’re on the court all the time, it’s a big responsibility. And she’s been doing really, really well with that responsibility. I think with all of the stuff that’s running through her head. She still has the ability to lead her team, help our passers when they’re in a rut, help our hitters, demand more from our hitters. So I’m really proud of her and how she’s been stepping up in that role.”
Friday’s victory can also be credited to a strong defensive outing for the Revs. Sophomore libero/middle back Amina Robinson, Yohannes, and Hiepler all came out strong, tallying 16, 17, and 18 digs respectively.
Hiepler, whose performance on Friday was good for a new career high in digs, talked about defensive improvements that have been translating to the matches this weekend.
“In practice, we really work on just go, no hesitating, just go. We’ve been working on extending our range, leading with our platform first, so we can cover more balls and basically just get more up. And then also, we’ve been working on, ones that we can make good, make them really good, just like making sure that we take care of what we need to take care of and I think that’s been translating into games, especially yesterday.”
But after Friday, the good times did not keep rolling for GW. As a coach, player, or a fan, you always hope that your team improves continuously and looks better every time they get out on the court. That gradual improvement, which I’ve seen all season from this GW team, was not on display on Saturday.
“They came at us with something different and we didn’t adjust very well,” Loughran noted about Saturday’s performance.
“Their hitters just switched their hitting spots on us and we didn’t do a good job of adjusting and hitting different spots on them either. So it was like a double whammy, I’d say.”
It was definitely a double whammy. For the first time all season, the Revs truly struggled both offensively and defensively.
The defense struggled to deal with the Duquesne attack, led on Saturday by a great performance from graduate outside hitter Morgan Gish. She hit a .571 with 15 kills. Another Duquesne 15-kill performance came from sophomore outside hitter Carsyn Henschen. Freshman setter Chloe Wilmot, a graduate of Alexandria City High school, drew a big crowd of former teammates. The Alexandria native put on a 39 assist performance for the local crowd in Saturday’s match.
Despite this year’s offense looking the best it has looked in a long time, GW struggled to get their attack going at any point in Saturday’s match. No Revolutionary hit double digit kills. Yohannes led with nine kills, and Wiczek trailed with eight. Liv Womble struggled to get it going, grabbing 6 kills and hitting a .000.
Coach Reifert was candid about the team’s struggles on Saturday on both sides of the ball.
“Duquesne stepped up their game for sure. They played really, really well. And I think that rattled us. And then I think it had an effect on our offense for sure. We were unable to get in our system as much as we were yesterday, which really showcases our best.”
She also talked about struggling on the block, which is another place GW is typically very strong. “[Friday] we were doing a good job of exposing their block. [Saturday], not so much. They did more, a better job exposing our block in terms of hitting off our hands and things like that. [Friday] we were more successful at that.”
The Revolutionaries now sit at 4-5 in conference play, which puts them right in the middle of the pack tied with Davidson, Duquesne, and Saint Louis. They return to conference play this weekend for a pair of away matches at Fordham on Friday 10/20 at 6:00 PM and Saturday 10/21 at 2:00 PM, followed by a standalone match at George Mason on Wednesday 10/25 at 6:00 PM. There is no broadcast available for these matches. They make their return to the Smith Center against #18 Dayton with matches on Friday 10/27 at 6:00 PM and Saturday 10/28 at 2:00 PM in games that will be broadcasted live on ESPN+.
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