Women's Volleyball Splits Conference Road Matches

The Lady Eagles volleyball team split their conference road trip this past weekend, defeating Barclay College and falling to nationally ranked Manhattan Christian. The Eagles defeated  Barclay 3-0 and lost to current conference leader  Manhattan 3-0. Faith is now 13-10 on the year and 3-2 in conference play.

Faith easily defeated Barclay in set one 25-8 with a 40% attack and taking advantage of the Bear's missed opportunities.  The Eagles captured the win with 25-19 and 25-19 consecutive set wins but coach Nihart and staff were disappointed in the effort.  "We cannot take off time in any match.  We need to continue to remind ourselves of our blue collar effort and make sure we are stronger every time we come off a match".  The Eagles were led by Kim Post with 12 kills, 14 digs and five solo blocks.  "We need Kim to lead her rotation and become a consistent attack option especially when Julia (Rocha) is under the weather. We are now getting late into the year and need to make sure we are finding all offensive options available,"suggested Nihart.  

Faith then traveled north to take on Manhattan Christian.  The Crusaders had defeated the Eagles in three just a week ago but the Eagles were determined to meet the challenge.  In set one Faith showed that determination by taking early leads and with the score at 20-20 looked for the upset.  Two consecutive kills by the Crusaders and serve receive errors by the Eagles stymied their upset bid ending in a 25-20 loss.  Set two found Faith falling back with a season low attack percentage and several defensive position errors.  "We need to get consistent ball handling and not give up on ourselves when we play strong teams who grab leads on us.  In the second set we did not play together and had no one step up with consistency.  As coaches we are going to need to demonstrate better our expecations to the players," noted Nihart.  Faith lost set two 25-13 and set three 25-19.  With leading digger JoJo Hodak only recording four digs it was evidence of the Eagles play.  "We need to bounce back this week and heal injuries and sickness.  As coaches we were dissapointed in our preparation for the match but hopefully can turn around this week," noted Nihart.

The Eagles will hit the road on Friday for another conference game, this time in Moberly, MO, against Central Christian College of the Bible. The Eagles were originally slated to play St. Louis Christian College Thursday night, but that game has been cancelled.