The Eastern University volleyball team bounced back from a tough 3-2 loss at #1 Wisconsin-Oshkosh and a2-0 deficit to beat St Catherine University 3-2. Courtney Reinhold finished the evening with 48 kills and 35 digs.
In traveling to Oshkosh, Eastern had their second chance to play against a #1 ranked team on the road this season. The 24th ranked Eagles stood toe-to-toe with the Titans before falling in five. As if playing against the top ranked team in the country on the road was not enough of a challenge, the Eastern team also had to make a late line-up adjustment following an injury to senior outside hitter Bridget Carey.
Carey leads the team in aces and is third in kills. The lone upper-classman in the Eastern starting line-up suffered an ankle injury in Thursday's practice at Oshkosh and was ruled out for the weekend. The Eastern coaching staff had a few minutes Thursday to experiment with some rotations in response to the injury, but it was one they did not try in practice that ultimately wound up as the solution. Sophomore Nikki Kummerer , an All-Freedom Conference Libero, went into her bag, pulled on a jersey that matched the rest of the squad, and played outside hitter for the first time in her college career.
Kummerer had just six kills against the Titans, but she picked up 20 digs and helped the Eagles to pass incredibly well as they actually scored more points in the match than their hosts. Eastern Head Coach Mark Birtwistle commented on Kummerer's transition saying, "She did remarkably well. She doesn't really practice hitting because as the libero she is not allowed to attack from the back row. She did play as an outside hitter in high school, but this was obviously a much different situation. We left practice and tried to figure out what gave us the best chance to win, and putting Nikki in Bridget's spot gave the team some positive rotations. All the players stepped up their game tonight."
Birtwistle pointed to the team's passing as a key for staying close to the Titans. The Eagles, who were just the second team to extend Oshkosh to five games this year, won the second set 25-14 and the fourth set 25-17. The hosts won the opening set 25-22, the third set 26-24 and the fifth set 15-7. Birtwistle said, "We passed really well and served aggressively. We had to, because they did not make many mistakes. They are a very good team."
Reinhold finished the first contest with 24 kills on 71 attempts to lead the Eastern hitters. Rachel Wenger put down 11 kills in the opening match, and Maria Horning distributed 48 assists. First year defensive specialist Kelly Groff donned the libero jersey and picked up 15 digs. The Eastern defense limited the Titans to a .148 team hitting percentage. Oshkosh, who finished the evening with a 3-0 win over St. Catherine, is now 25-0.
Following their tough loss, the Eagles did not get much of a break in time or inopponent. Just minutes after their first lengthy match ended, the Eastern team was back on the floor against another big athletic Midwest opponent. St. Kate's was playing in their first match of the day.
The Minnesota squad came out flying and put the Eagles down early with convincing wins in the opening two sets, but the Eagles battled back to take the next two sets 25-18. Eastern held a 14-10 lead in the final set, but the Wildcats rallied to tie the score. After 4 1/2 hours of play, Eastern finally pulled out a 21-19 win to take the match.
Groff stood out in the second match with a team-best 35 digs. That number is the third highest single-match total in program history. Groff's effort was just part of a great team defensive effort. The Eagles finished the match with a season-best 99 digs. More importantly, many of those defensive efforts came under the pressure of being down 2-0 and several came with the match on the line. Kummerer finished with 20 digs and Reinhold added 17.
Reinhold and Wenger again paced the offense with 24 and 12 kills. Wenger added a team-best four blocks, while Reinhold hit .338 for the match. Birtwistle also cited the contribution of Heather Kauffman. The first year middle had a career high 12 kills and hit .476 with three block.
"It was such a great effort tonight." Birtwistle commented. "To bounce back like we did after that really tough loss says a lot about the players and is really encouraging for the future. To battle for that long against a top-ranked team and then have to come back and beat a fresh team in five is really tough to do. Our passing and defense was a big key."
Maria Horning, as she always is, was critical to the Eagles' success. The sophomore All-American collected 62 assists in the second match. That is the fifth highest single-match total in program history. "Maria was awesome tonight," Birtwistle commented, "in the 10th set of the evening, she was still running down balls. We passed well, but she refused to let us lose."
The Eastern staff chose to head to the Midwest over Fall Break to get games against top-level competition, and they will get more tomorrow as they draw 6th ranked Carthage in a 10 am match before taking on Luther at 2:00.
