Lake Wales, FL. In a game that lasted two and a half hours and in front of a rowdy 350 fans, The WIU Lady Warriors Volleyball team defeated The Sun Conference foe and Crooked Lake Rival Warner University in a 5 set thriller Tuesday night winning 3-2 (24-26, 28-26, 25-19, 26-28, 15-9). The Lady Warriors improve to 15-9, 6-1 TSC while the Lady Royals drop to 10-10, 5-2 TSC.
With a packed house and split crowd the Lady Warriors and Lady Royals battled it out for supremacy of Crooked Lake. The battle on the court was in-between the battle of fans as they cheered on their school. The first set was an extremely contested game with the Lady Royals just edging out the Lady Warriors 26-24 to take the early lead. Not to disappoint, the second set topped the first by having 22 ties and 13 lead changes, double the amount of the first set. The Lady Warriors would fight to the end to edge Warner in another close game 28-26 to head into the intermission tied 1-1.
In set three, the Lady Warriors quieted the crowd and took quick control of the game by winning the third set with ease 25-19. In the fourth set, the back and forth struggle continued as there was 18 ties and 7 lead changes. With some questionable calls going against the Lady Warriors throughout the match, the Lady Royals from Warner University took a closely contested fourth set 28-26 to force the deciding fifth set. As the crowd battle waged on in support of their schools, the Lady Warriors and Lady Royals were deadlocked in the final set tied 2-2 until the Lady Warriors took the lead after scoring three straight points and never letting the Lady Royals get closer than two, 11-9. The Lady Warriors ran off the final four point to take game five and the match in a pivotal The Sun Conference Match.
Both defenses were exceptional in the match with both recording over 140 digs each. Leading the Lady Warriors defense was Sophomore Libero Tanner Garbutt with 31 digs. Garbutt also had 4 assist in the match. Warner's Jarrah Garner lead all players with a personal and school record of 60 digs in the match.
Three Lady Warriors, Junior Setter Katie Lindstrom, Junior Outside Chelsea Umana and Freshman Outside Breanna Evoy, had double doubles in the match. Lindstrom paced the Lady warriors and had a game high 51 assist and recorded 20 digs in the match. Umana recorded 10 kills and 30 digs for her double double. Evoy lead the Lady Warriors offense with 16 kills and helped out on defense with 12 digs. Junior Opposite Karimah Hay just missed a double double as she recorded 9 kills and 25 digs. Both of the Lady Warriors Middle blockers where very efficient. Junior Candace Doren recorded 10 kills with a game and season high .450% hitting percentage. Junior Shauna Brown recorded12 kills on a .212% hitting percentage. Both Doren and Brown helped out on defense picking up 5 and 6 digs respectively. The Lady Warriors front line recorded 11 blocks in the match.
In an interview, Head Volleyball Coach Brian Goodhind had this to say about the match; “Last night was one of those matches and environments that as an athlete you dream of playing in. Warner's gym was packed and very loud. You could barely hear yourself think! I know I am the coach of Webber but I could not be more impressed with the improvement that their new coach, Chrissy M, has brought to that program. They are so much better than the team we saw last season. It is truly night and day and they are a definitely a team to worry about in The Sun Conference tournament for anyone. I have to give a major shout out to our Webber fans. It felt like a home game at times for us thanks to them. 115 WIU fans came out to support our girls! I want to say thank-you so much to the Men's basketball teams, the Men's soccer team, and to all the other students that came out to support. You are 100% part of the reason we were able to pull out that match! As far as the actual match, is was kind of crazy to be honest. It was the first time in my coaching career that I can say I felt like a lot of things were going against us. Our girls showed some major character as they were able to persevere and get through that match with a 'W'. Katie Lindstrom, who is playing through an injury, has been a major inspiration for us all as she sacrifices day in and day out for her teammates. What is amazing is she sets as well as Riddles setter or any of the top setters out there and she is maybe 50% (51 assists and 20 digs)! Shauna Brown is another girl who is sacrificing and playing through injury and had big kill after big kill for us(12 kills, hit .212%), so proud of her! Chelsea Umana came up big for us as well, especially on defense and I want to make sure to compliment Candace Doren (10 kills, hit .450%)! Doren played huge for us as we grabbed control of game three thanks to her play out of the middle! Libero Tanner Garbutt did her thing out of the back row and passed solid for us along with coming up with key defensive plays (31 digs). I could on and on and on about girl after girl but last night was one of those nights where, as a coach, I went home proud of the 'TEAM' win!”
The Lady Warriors return to action on Friday October 26th at 7:00 pm when they host The Sun Conference Foe St. Thomas University in what will be a major game concerning conference standings.
