Lady Eagles Take Down AIB

The Faith volleyball team moved their season record to 18-12 with a 3-1 win road victory Thursday over NAIA foe American Institute of Business.  Faith battled AIB in the first set only to lose 25-21 largely on five missed serves.  "AIB gained nine of thier 25 points on our miscues including missed serving.  As a team we sensed the oppourtunity to win if we could control our serving and ball handling," noted coach Nihart.  The Eagles then jumped out to quick 8-2 and 10-4 leads which were large enough to jump start the Eagles to a 25-18 victory. The Eagles attack percentage increased from -5% to 28.2%. 

 

Set three found both Faith and AIB grabbing short leads only to find themselves tied at 24-24.  Faith had four successive set point opportunities but AIB was resilient each time.  Faith secured the set win at 29-27 after scoring on serve receive and a final AIB miscue and by increaseing their attack percentage to 37.2%.  "We talked between sets one and two how our serve receive needed a more aggressive response.  Executing four consecutive side outs late in the set was good for our confidence," noted Nihart.  In set four the Eagles trailed 4-3 and 12-11 before establishing control at 16-13 and 22-16.  Freshmen Alyssa Larson and sophomore JoJo Hodak put together seperate 5 point runs to secure the win. 

 

Senior Julia Bray led Faith with 15 kills and sophomore Kim Post added 11 kills, 22 digs, three blocks and three serving aces.  Setter Stephanie Knupp continued her improvement as floor general and added 41 assists.  "We need Kim to begin to dominate at her position.  Our team is beginning to sense a surge of energy despite soreness and being tired.  We really want to continue to build momentum going into the NCCAA Regional Tournament.  We want to get that Regional banner that has been elusive since 2003," mentioned Nihart.