Box Score
Chester, PA — Thanks to Messiah, the top of the Commonwealth Conference standings have turned into a jumbled mess.
The Falcons captured a dramatic 3-2 (16-25, 25-19, 22-25, 29-27, 15-12) decision at Widener University Tuesday night, clinching a place in the upcoming Commonwealth Conference playoffs while making the seeding of the four-team tournament a potential mishmash: With Tuesday's win, Messiah (12-12, 4-2) now possesses the tiebreaker over Widener (18-13, 4-2), but that could all change should Messiah, Widener and Lebanon Valley College all finish with league records of 5-2.
With those details yet to be ironed out, the post-season was the least of Messiah head coach Judi Tobias' concerns Tuesday. The Falcons had withstood coming a point away from a 3-1 defeat at the Schwartz Center, coming back to steal a 29-27 fourth set decision before posting nine kills in the final set for the 15-12 clincher.
“I'm thrilled,” Tobias said after the emotional win. “It's just nice to do what I thought we could do and I feel good about that. Now we have to keep moving and we can't get lethargic at all. We only have one week left in the regular season.”
After being thoroughly dominated by Widener in the match's first set — Messiah posted a match-low team attack percentage of.032 — Tobias' club responded, taking a 25-19 second set decision behind a match-high 14 putaways.
An athletic Widener side grasped a 25-22 victory in the third set, and with the match on the line, appeared to have Tobias' club right where it wanted them.
Incredibly, Messiah showed perhaps its most resolute play of the season in the fourth, going hit for hit with the Pride until securing the all-important two-point spread at 29-27.
“We knew we just had to come out strong,” Tobias said of the night's pivotal fourth stanza. “We played well in the third set, even though we lost. We went down in the fourth set and got the ball back. (Sophomore) Megan Wise had a huge run of successful serves. They had a little bit of trouble handling her float serve and that was real helpful. They also missed some serves.”
With newfound life, Messiah responded in a huge way: Nine kills in the fifth set paved the way for the overall win, as the Falcons hit at a .381 clip, winning for the fourth time out of nine five-set matches on the year.
Both the Falcons' kills and attack percentage were season-high marks for a fifth set performance.
“I was pleased especially with our fifth set,” Tobias said. “We had nine kills. That's phenomenal for a fifth set.”
Freshman Ann Reck paced Messiah's offense up front, registering a career-high 16 kills on 41 swings for a ridiculous .341 attack percentage. Classmate Lauren Rees provided 14 kills and sophomore Brynn Lettieri had 11, coming up with four assist blocks as well.
Wise finished with a team-high three service aces and 26 digs. Senior Lauren Bourdon dished out 47 assists from the setter position, a beneficiary of solid back-row passing from Messiah all evening long.
"It felt great to win,” Tobias said. “Ann Reck had an incredible match. They just couldn't read her. She came out there and just tore it up. (Sophomore) Emily (Hall) played well also. She hit .222 and that's pretty good. We just have to keep working on the things that we've been practicing: Passing percentage and improving our serves. We did a nice job of that tonight. Those were two huge factors in our winning. If you can't pass, you can't run the offense.”
Perhaps the Falcons' only downfall came again in the form of serving errors, as the team's 20 miscues behind the service line equaled a season-worst mark.
“The funny thing was, that was one of our team goals going into tonight's match,” Tobias said. “We've been talking about averaging less than two missed serves per set. We haven't achieved that yet but we're working on that. It's possible. We haven't hit it yet. It takes focus and attention. This isn't an easy goal but I believe it can be done.”
Messiah will take a brief respite from league play before hosting Lycoming College next Wednesday, as the team will travel to Clinton, New York for a tournament at Hamilton College over the weekend. The Falcons will face the host Continentals to open play at 4 p.m. Friday. The squad will then play Medialle College, Anna Maria College and St. Lawrence University in the two-day, round-robin event.
“We just need to play to the best of our ability for the rest of the season to keep working on what we're trying to accomplish,” Tobias said. “Now is the time to be playing our best volleyball, and I think we are headed in that direction.”
