Elsah, ILL. -- Principia hosted four SLIAC teams today, and the women lost in three straight games to Webster before earning a four game victory over Spalding University.
The Panthers were able to hang with Webster until about 13 points in both games one and two, but the Gorloks then took control and finished out those games 25-19 and 25-21. Game three was all Webster 25-17. Statistically Principia was closer than it looked with Webster tallying 35 kills to Principia's 36, and Webster picking up 88 digs to Principia's 86. The big difference was Principia's unforced errors – 7 service errors compared to WU 2, and Prin's 14% hitting error vs WU's 9%. The Panthers were slow to get their ball control warmed up and therefore unable to get their offense revved up.
Four hitters proved effective against Webster –
Sophia Hathaway with 14 kills (.229),
Nikki Matters with 7 kills (.185),
Noelle Shoemake with 7 kills (.118) and
Sarah Ungerleider with 4 kills (.214). Four players dug in the double digits as well –
Mia Gill,
Sophia Hathaway,
Noelle Shoemake and
Hayden Warner.
Today was the first meeting of the season with Spalding, and Principia won 25-22, 25-13. 22-25, 25-22. Spalding proved to be a tough defensive team, with great grit and resolve to not let balls hit the ground. They only put down 35 kills compared to Principia's 52, but they picked up 113 digs and recorded 10 blocks as well. The Panther offense was still struggling with 15% error compared to SU's 14%. Both teams missed too many serves, so that balanced out.
Hayden Warner was on fire killing 16 balls with only two errors for a .389 clip, and Sophia had 14 kills (.136). There were only a few hitters hitting above zero which made the victory hard-earned. The team hit a cringing .102 and .098 today, which made everything harder. HOWEVER, the bench came into matches strong when they were needed, and the team just kept going, and worked well together to come away with a necessary win against Spalding.
Coach Sprague commented, "I'm proud of the group for working 'as one' today. It was a challenging day taking care of our own business, but they worked it out and came away with a win."
Tuesday Principia hits the road to play Greenville in their second match of the season. Principia is 1-0 vs. the Greenville Panthers at this point.
