Middle blocker Nichole Grochola rising up for an attack. (Aaron Amawan)
The Saint Xavier University Cougars stay undefeated in conference after defeating the Calumet Crimson Wave in three sets on Tuesday October 8th.
The Cougars are currently on a five game win streak and are making a case for being the best team in the CCAC. They completely turned their season around after starting 0-5. On the other hand, the Crimson Wave came into this game on a 17 game losing streak. Their record stands at 0-17 and 0-8 in conference, they currently have the worst record in the CCAC.
Although the Crimson Wave’s current record is absolutely horrible, the Cougars shockingly dropped a game against the Crimson Wave last year at home. The Cougars were looking to get their revenge against a much weaker Crimson Wave team on the road.
The first set did not start off close with the Cougars quickly jumping out to a 10-3 lead. The Cougars made it clear out the gate that they were the better team. The Crimson Wave was unable to stop the Cougars’ relentless attacks and were not able to score many points themselves.
The first set quickly got out of hand and the Cougars ended up finishing off the Crimson Wave 25-11. The Crimson Wave had 36 total attempts in the first set and were able to convert only five of those attempts into kills. They hit at a depressing -.056 efficiency, which made it impossible for them to make this set competitive.
The Cougars on the other hand had a respectable hitting percentage of .281% which helped them cruise to an easy first set victory. Nicole Grochola and Jenny Jensen led the way for the Cougars this set with three kills each.
Going into the second set the Crimson Wave had to play with a sense of urgency if they wanted to avoid an embarrassing sweep. They did just that, beating the Cougars to double digits. Unfortunately for the Crimson Wave, once they hit 10 points, the Cougars would go on a 6-0 run making the score 15-10.
Despite the Crimson Wave’s attempts at clawing back into the game, the Cougars were unable to be stopped and ended up taking the second set 25-16. The Cougars hit at a match high efficiency of .556%, while the Crimson Wave hit a little better than they did the first set with an efficiency of .056%. The Crimson Wave also did not serve well, missing four serves while only tallying two aces.
The third set came around and the Crimson Wave started off hot jumping out to a 6-2 lead, unfortunately for the Crimson Wave, this was the only lead that they would have. The Cougars would tie the score up at 6-6 and after that the game did not remain close.
Although the Cougars had their worst hitting percentage of the match this set, they were still able to easily beat the Crimson Wave 25-16. The Crimson Wave almost had another set with a negative hitting percentage but managed to avoid that embarrassment hitting at a .000%.
The match was ultimately won with a tremendous team effort by the Cougars. A stand out from the game was middle blocker Nichole Grochola who led all players in kills with eight total. Grochola has been an offensive threat all season for the Cougars hitting at a .234% this season. Grochola has taken over the starting middle spot recently with Courtney Hunter moving to the right side and has played well.
Outside hitting Connie Lebel was right behind Grochola with seven kills of her own, and almost breaking into double digits in digs with nine total. Lebel has had a very impressive season leading the team with 264 kills and 40 aces. She has also been awarded CCAC attacker of the week twice this year.
Setter Kaleigh Ritter, who was awarded CCAC setter of the week for the second week in a row had seven assists against the Crimson Wave and four digs. The Cougars other setter Samantha Hovey tallied a match high 14 assists and two service aces.
With this win, the Cougars hold on to their second place spot in the CCAC, while the Crimson Wave maintains their spot as the worst team in the CCAC with a record of 0-8 in conference. The Cougars play Judson University Eagles next on Tuesday Oct.15th. The Eagles are currently right behind the Cougars in the CCAC standings with a conference record of 6-1.
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