Hornet Volleyball traveled to California last week to compete in the San Diego Invite. The trip presented three first-time matchups for the Hornets: Point Loma, Cal State San Bernardino and Northwest Nazarene.
The Hornets fell 0-3 against Point Loma on Thursday, Sept. 4, and in a closer match, ESU failed to take the win against CSU-San Bernardino 2-3. However, The Hornets took home the win on their final match of the trip against Northwest Nazarene 3-1.
Emporia State led for the majority of the first set 17-13. After a timeout, Northwest Nazarene rallied to bring the score to a tie 18-18 before ESU pulled ahead again 23-20. Both teams went back and forth until the Nighthawks won 28-26.
In the second set, the Hornets scored the first seven points and took an early lead. After a timeout by the Nighthawks, the Hornets advanced the score 10-1. Before ESU claimed their 25-22 win, Northwest Nazarne pulled within three points.
The Hornets went on to score seven of the first eight points in set three and reached a 9-point lead several times throughout the set. The Hornets eventually claimed the set 25-17.
During the fourth, both teams rallied early on until ESU led 13-10 at the half. ESU increased their lead 17-12 before the Nighthawks also advanced to bring them within two points of the Hornets 20-18. A 5-1 scoring run allowed the Hornets to take the set 25-19 and close out the match with a sweep of the Nighthawks.
Three highlighted players of this match and season, graduate student outside hitter Nyia Anderson, senior outside/right side hitter Camilla Ossola, and freshman setter/right side Delainee Dexter spoke with the ESU Bulletin about this tournament.
Graduate student outside hitter Nyia Anderson had a strong offensive with 11 kills. She says that using her “toolbox” and having good ball movement helped her offensively.
“I want to be the player for my team that is labeled the “clutch” player, someone who my team can depend on in tough situations or tight games,” she said. “As an outside hitter, I am known to get a lot of “trash” balls, but I have to remain an offensive threat.”
While ESU lost the first set against Northwest Nazarene, they still left strong.
“The team stayed composed by coming together, and trusting each other in our capabilities to uplift one another. Volleyball is a game of momentum and it changes so quickly because it’s a point-by-point game. With that being said, it is really easy for a team to creep back in a game and come back on top, which is exactly what we did as a team,” said Anderson.
Leaving with a win and coming back home on a high note was very important for the Hornets.
“It was very important for the team to close out San Diego with a win because we wanted to go into this next week feeling good. There were a lot of errors made on our part that helped the other teams solidify their win, but we did progress through every game,” Anderson said. “It helped us a ton when we switched our normal rotation and tried out some people in different positions, one freshman in particular, Emma Klett, did a wonderful job stepping up this past weekend.”
Ossola was close to double digits in kills and also added a solo block during the match against Northwest Nazarene. Ossola says that balancing offense and defense comes from “experience”.
“After playing college volleyball for four years, there are a lot of things that you learn about how to manage high pressure situations, and how to become a reliable player when the team needs you the most, not only offensively but being a solid player defensively as well,” she said
Although Ossola contributes on both sides of the ball, there is a specific thing she takes pride in–her consistency.
“I was very proud of my consistency throughout the weekend, being able to be a solid player for my team, also for the first time I was able to get a ton of blocks, which helped us stop the opponents from scoring, something that I have been struggling with lately,” Ossola told The Bulletin.
Heading into the Washburn Invitational on Friday, Ossola is personally working on improving her hitting. There, ESU will play two matches against Newman and Truman State before going head to head with MSU Moorehead and William Jewell on Saturday.
“Being able to hit different shots out of system, I’ve been working on a high line shot from the right side, and blocking wise being able to dive into the seams so that we can stuff more in system balls,” she said.
First serve against Newman is set for 9 a.m. on Friday in Topeka.
