The women’s volleyball team hosted this year’s Division II West Region Volleyball Showcase at the Kellogg Arena over the weekend.
The Broncos took on their first match of the showcase against the Seattle Pacific Falcons on Thursday afternoon. The Broncos came out with a victory in their first set, 26-24. Despite an adrenaline-pumping match-up, the Broncos fell short in the second set, 16-25. Battling back-to-back, both teams took a set and powered through to the final. It was Seattle Pacific who took the victory ending the fifth set, 15-9.
Junior middle blocker Ally Wilder accomplished a career high of 17 kills. She wasn’t the only one who had impressive numbers during the Broncos’ match against the Falcons. Freshman outside hitter Jazminn Parrish recorded 13 kills and junior outside hitter Aofiaolela Faa’agi had 12 kills. Freshman defensive specialist Mikayla Diamond finished with a total of 14 digs.
After a loss against the Falcons, the Broncos prepared to take on No. 3 Western Washington. The Vikings were the national runners-up last year, so the Broncos knew they were locked in and ready for a fight.
The Broncos fought through the first set with a rough and shaky beginning. They made a comeback against the Vikings and pushed them to 23-24. With one play on the line, the Vikings clinched the first set with a kill. The Broncos brushed off the set, switched to the other side of the net and got ready to get revenge for the second set.
Coming in with a vengeance, the Broncos scored the first five points and set back the Vikings. Both teams rallied with each other with some outstanding plays, but it was the Vikings who took the second set with a score of 25-13.
A set was in jeopardy for the Broncos and head coach Traci Dahl motivated the team to take it play-by-play.
Although the Broncos’ determination was clear, the Vikings took the third set 25-18, and the match.
Having the showcase in Pomona at Kellogg Arena carried immense energy for the team.
“I think it’s great; any time you can be at home for your matches is really good. I think the competition is (at a) really high level, which is going to prepare us for conference,” Dahl said. “I thought tonight we battled really hard. We battled throughout the day in five sets and we’re going to come back. We’re really still working on different people in the lineup. We had five freshmen on the floor and it’s really exciting.”
The team had a different mindset coming into Thursday night’s match due to the upsetting loss earlier in the day.
“I just wanted to win. I just wanted to go all out and put all of my energy towards that game, no matter what,” Parrish said.
With a career high of 17 kills in the first game, Wilder was determined for a win in Thursday’s match.
“We talked about staying together and mentally preparing for tonight,” Wilder said. “We write on a white board what we want to see throughout the match so that’s always helpful. We wanted to serve tougher to get their hitters out of system.”
On Friday, the Broncos faced a sweep against the Chaminade Silverswords (25-22, 25-16, 27-25).
Despite another loss, Parrish shined once again with 13 kills, being the only player on the team to land in double digits.
Wilder came in behind her with a total of six kills.
On Saturday, the Broncos fell 0-3 to the University of Hawaii at Hilo, to finish out the showcase weekend.
Parrish ended the match with 12 kills, while Wilder ended with seven kills and one block.
The Broncos’ record is now 2-5 going into conference, which begins this week.
The Broncos will head north this week to take on Humboldt State at 7 p.m. Thursday.
On Saturday, they will continue their travels as they face off against Sonoma State at 7 p.m.
