McPherson College’s volleyball team was oh so close to its first conference vitory in two years here Wednesday night.
The Bulldogs opened KCAC play with a dual against Kansas Wesleyan. They got off to a rousing start with 3`1-29 and 30-28 victories before Wesleyan came back for 30-15 and 3017 wins. In the deciding game that goes to 15, the Lady Coyotes came away with a 15-10 win.
“The first two games we were talking and really working together as a team,” Mac coach Nathalea Stephenson said. “We were digging the ball well and blocking a lot of their spikes. It caused them to change up and try to tip the ball, but we did a nice job of picking things up.”
Stephenson said the Bulldogs seemed to tire toward the end of the match, yet she believes a lot of positives came out of the night.
“I think that the girls worked very hard tonight to gain respect in the conference and I believe we did just that,” she said.
Leaders for the Bulldogs were Lisa Salazar (10 kills), Erica Alvarez (5 kills, 5 solo and 6 assists on blocks), Terra Simoneau (15 of 16 serving, 5 kills) and Audrey Garcia (14 of 16 serving, 8 aces).
Another plus, Stephenson said, was the play of Amy Gremmer. She has not played for two years, but made a nice return to action. Mac, now 1-2 overall, plays Saturday at Haskell.