On Thursday January 21, the Saint Xavier Men’s Volleyball team went on the road for their season opener to challenge the team ranked 13 in the preseason of the NAIA, Dominican University. The Cougars would not fare well in the season opener, as they were overpowered by their opponents’ attack and would eventually be swept by the #13 team in the NAIA.
Dominican set the tone for the entire game early in the first set, scoring seven of the first eight points to take a 7-1 lead. The Cougars responded though, scoring four of the next six points to cut their deficit to 9-5.
From there, Saint Xavier and Dominican traded points back and forth until the score was 14-8 in favor of the Cougars’ opponent. At this point, you could sense that the Cougars’ confidence was growing as they were hanging around with one of the best volleyball teams in the NAIA.
But Dominican also sensed this, and stopped this set from being any closer as they went on a massive 10-2 run to put the game out of reach at the score of 24-10. The set ended soon after that run with Dominican taking it by the score of 25-11.
The second set started differently from the first as the Cougars would pull ahead and take a 2-1 lead. It was short lived however, as Dominican went on a 6-1 run to take their first lead of the second set at 7-3.
The Cougars showed more resilience against their strong opposition by scoring four of the next six points of the set to cut their deficit to 9-7. In what could be called a parallel to the first set though, Dominican, sensing that the Cougars were too close for comfort went on a big run to all but end the game.
The big run was a 14-4 run that pushed Dominican up 23-11 in the second set. The two teams traded points the rest of the way, resulting in a crucial second set win for Dominican by the score of 25-13.
With the Cougars down 2-0 in the game and looking completely outmatched thus far in the game, they needed a strong performance the rest of the game in order to show that games like today will not be a recurring thing for them this season.
Unfortunately, they would not get off to a good start in the third set, as DU would score six of the first eight points to take an early 6-2 lead. The Cougars fought back though, scoring eight of the next thirteen points to close their gap to 11-10 and showing their fans and their opponents that there was going to be no quit in them.
DU though, tried to pull away from Saint Xavier once again, scoring four straight points to extend their lead to 15-10. The Cougars would still not quit, fighting back and making the game close at the score of 20-17.
At this point, it seemed as if the Cougars would actually come back in this set and extend the game to a fourth set. However, this did not come to pass as Dominican eventually won the set by the score of 25-20 and sweep the Cougars 3-0 in the game.
Despite the loss, the Cougars, in the third set, showed that in spite of the opponent that they will play with grit and toughness every time they take the court. They had to bring that grit and toughness later in the week as they played their second game of the season, this time in front of their home crowd.
On Friday January 22, the Saint Xavier Men’s Volleyball team played their second game of the season at home against Bendectine-Mesa. The Cougars’ home opener played out much like their season opener as they would get swept by their opponents.
The first set did not start out well for the Cougars as Benedictine-Mesa went on an early 6-2 run. The game got worse before it got better as BUM extended their lead to 14-4. The Cougars did not just lie down, though, as they responded by scoring four straight points to cut their deficit to 14-8.
But once again, Benedictine-Mesa went go on another run and extend their lead to 21-11. The Cougars again showed their resiliency as they scored the next three points to make the score 21-14.
However, that was as close as the Cougars would get due to a set-closing 4-0 run to give BUM a 25-14 set win and a 1-0 game lead. The Cougars needed to improve their quality of play in the pivotal second set if they wanted to make this game longer than their last one.
The second set started out with much improved play from the Cougars’ side as they jumped out to an early 6-3 lead. However, this lead would not last long as Benedictine-Mesa went on a 10-3 run to take the lead at 13-9.
The two teams then engaged in a back and forth affair as both teams would trade points until the score was 16-12. At this point, sensing that the game was too close for comfort, BUM seemed to turn up their aggressiveness and their quality of play en route to a set-clinching 9-3 run and end the set by the score of 25-15.
After giving up that demoralizing major run to end the second half and to put them down in the game 2-0, no one would have blamed the Cougars if they decided to pack it in and not play with any energy in the third set.
But quitting is not in the Cougars DNA and they once again showed great resiliency in the face of an insurmountable adversity. The third set showed the Cougars’ toughness as they would trade points back and forth, with the score being tied at 5-5. BUM took over the third set though, scoring nine of the next fifteen points to take a 14-11 lead.
Benedictine-Mesa would not stop there though, scoring six of the next eleven points to extend their lead to 20-16. From there, both teams traded points back and forth with each other, showing the competitive spirits of both team in front of the Saint Xavier crowd.
The game would continue like this until the score was 23-19. Sensing that this game was nearing its end at this point, the Cougars went on a 3-0 run and closed their gap to 23-22. With the fans rooting their home team on, hoping for a miracle comeback, you could not help but feel that the Cougars were going to re-take the lead and win their first set of the season.
Unfortunately, this scenario did not pan out as BUM scored the next two points and win the third set by the tight score of 25-22, thus sweeping the Cougars 3-0 in the game. With the two losses this season, the Cougars’ record starts out at 0-2.
The Cougars will look to collect their first win of the season on the road when they travel to Wisconsin on Friday January 29 to take on Marian University.
John Romando
Senior Sports Editor