By Liam Reilly
@liampreilly862
SPRINGFIELD – The Springfield College women’s volleyball team swept Wheaton Tuesday night at Blake Arena. The Pride are now 16-2 and 5-0 at home.
Springfield opened the first set by taking a 8-4 lead with junior Jodi Saelua slashing through Wheaton’s defense for three kills. Saelua continued causing issues for the Lyons after rifling a kill into Wheaton’s sideline and extending the Pride’s lead to 18-11. Dominant defensive play and offensive errors from the Lyons ultimately won the Pride the set, 25-17.
The second set started off knotted at four until Saelua recorded a pair of kills to give Springfield a 10-7 lead. Wheaton’s offense started to click, and they took a 16-15 lead. The battle continued late into the set, each team taking a lead but also having to use timeouts to regroup. Set two went into extra points, where a kill from senior Emily Keaveney from the top of the Springfield logo gave the Pride the set win, 28-26.
With the score tied at 21, Springfield head coach Moira Long called a timeout. During the timeout and throughout the final points of the second set, her message to the team was to control their side.
“We weren’t serving tough, we were putting them right on people’s platforms and we need to go back there and be more intentional and serve aggressively,” Long said. “It came down to execution. We need a block, a dig and then right now we’re going to side out, step back and serve a point.”
With the sweep on the line, Springfield’s offense sparked to an 8-2 lead with junior Ahunna James and first-year Aubrey Hughes each notching a kill. The Pride continued to hold onto their lead through the middle of the set, with Keaveney recording an ace to set the score at 17-11 in favor of Springfield. The Pride took set three and the match was won after a bad set from Wheaton failed to get over the net.
The win over Wheaton pushes Springfield to a 16-2 record and extends their win streak to 13 games. The Pride had a plethora of players contribute to tonight’s win, one of them being Saelua who finished the match with 11 kills and two blocks. Saelua credited her performance to her team.
“I do it for my team,” Saelua said. “We’ve been working really hard this past week especially on running different routes in the middle, so doing it for others is my motivation.”
The team’s motto this season is being able to respond to adversity. With Wheaton taking the lead multiple times in the second set and fighting throughout the third, Long recognized her squad for their ability to respond and win the match.
“They all responded,” Long said. “Avery went in and she stepped on the court and served an ace. Alexa responded. She had an error at set point in set two and came back with a thunderous kill. Honestly I think everybody responded.”
Springfield takes on Amherst in an away matchup Thursday night.
Photo by Liam Reilly/The Student