Box Score
Williamsport, PA — Messiah head volleyball coach Judi Tobias did not mince words when speaking to her team about Wednesday's MAC Commonwealth match at Lycoming College.
“We told them Monday (at practice), if we win, we've got a shot to do some things (in the post-season),” Tobias said. “Lose, and for all intents and purposes, we're playing the rest of our (conference) schedule purely for our overall record.”
The message was clear. After dropping its first two conference matches of the season against Elizabethtown College and at Widener University, the Falcons needed to win at Lycoming to avoid a virtually unrecoverable hole within the league standings.
The result? A 19-25, 25-20, 25-22, 10-25, 15-11 Messiah win that very well may have saved the entire season — all in the most incredible of fashions.
“Without question, our biggest win of the year,” Tobias said late Wednesday. “This keeps us in the run within the conference, and it keeps us from playing the rest of our matches for overall record only. We want to have a chance to get to the post-season (conference tournament). We don't want to have a decent record and not be able to do anything with it.
“This was obviously a huge win.”
Messiah's first five-set win of the season — the team was 0-2 in full-length matches coming in — the Falcons used an incredible fifth-set performance to belie a miserable fourth-set display, somehow walking out of Lamade Gymnasium with its first conference win of the year.
It was the host Lady Warriors that started the evening off strong, taking a 25-19 win in the first stanza behind an impressive .294 attack percentage. Messiah (9-4, 1-2) fell behind early, eventually trailing by an 18-10 score and never posing a threat.
That all changed in the second and third sets, however, as Tobias' club ripped off consecutive wins by holding the upper hand at critical moments: The Falcons led Lycoming (8-11, 0-2) by a 22-16 difference in the second and by a 23-16 margin in the third, coasting to a pair of wins behind .146 and .239 attack percentages, respectively.
It was at that moment that the wheels fell off completely, however, as Messiah fell behind in the fourth by an 11-1 score, only getting to within an eight-point difference before suffering the team's worst single-set loss of the season.
“We got on the bus during the fourth set,” Tobias said of the 25-10 laugher. “We were running into each other, hitting the ball out of bounds. Everything fell apart. It was almost like we reached a fatigue point that we couldn't overcome. It wasn't that we weren't trying, it was just that we couldn't do anything right. Set four was just a case of wanting to get this one over and move on.”
And move on they did. Somehow, Tobias' team put its sickening loss behind them, racing out a 3-1 lead in the fifth and final stanza. Freshman Cassy Diamond got the scoring started with a kill and senior Leslie Heffner did the same following a solo block from freshman Brynn Letttieri, and suddenly the Falcons were back in business.
“We just talked fundamentals (after the fourth set),” Tobias said. “We had to. We were tired. We were fatigued. I talked to Leslie about getting a bigger arm swing and getting her head down. We just had to focus much better than we did.”
Lycoming would not surrender easily in the final set, coming back to tie things at 7-7. It was then that Messiah came up with perhaps its biggest 3-0 run of the year, claiming points via kills from senior Amy Mattie, Diamond and junior Lauren Bourdon to take a 10-7 lead.
“That was a critical moment for us,” Tobias said. “To keep that momentum up after changing sides (of the net) was huge. That's not easy to do. You change sides, you kind of ice your own server a bit. Amy did an unbelievable job serving at that point.”
A kill from junior Samantha Bradley thwarted a Lyco point following a timeout from the hosts, making the score 11-8, Messiah. Bradley then went on to record her only service ace of the evening on the next exchange, giving the Falcons a 12-8 lead and the momentum.
Lycoming would pull within 12-9 but kills from Diamond and Heffner subdued any thoughts of a rally, while a kill from Lettieri ended things in the final 15-11 difference.
Heffner paced the Falcons' offense, charting a season-high 19 kills on a .167 attack percentage. She was one of three to post double-digit kill totals, as Bradley added 11 on a .222 clip while Mattie provided 10. Senior Trisha Trosper was next in line, posting nine attacks for points.
Defensively, senior Meghan Morrissey came up brilliant, posting a season-high 37 digs. Bradley registered four block assists, while she and Lettieri combined for the team's two solo denials.
Heffner finished with four service aces, while Bourdon placed 42 sets for assists.
“We played with much more energy and excitement than we had been, and that was a good thing, because we needed it,” Tobias said. “Winning our first league game was a good hurdle to get over, and winning our first five-set match was a good hurdle to get over. We hope this can kind of jump start us in the direction that we want to finish.”
The Falcons will get a break from MAC Commonwealth play next, as the team will travel to Philadelphia Biblical University Saturday before returning to league play next week. Match time against the Crimson Eagles is set for 11 a.m.
