The Tigers traveled to the Gateway of the West for the Baden Invite, held at Washington-St. Louis University. After dropping the first two matchups on Friday—against the eighth-ranked host Washington University in St. Louis (3-1, 10-25, 29-27, 16-25, 18-25) and Whitworth University (3-0, 20-25, 13-25, 22-25)—they bounced back, grabbing the double W to tie up the weekend.
Saturday’s matchups included Cornell College, who the Tiger’s defeated 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-23), and Hendrix 3-2 (13-25, 23-25, 29-27, 25-13, 15-12).
“Our team has mixed feelings about splitting the weekend,” said senior hitter Lauren Falotico. “On one hand, we ended the weekend on a high note playing great volleyball. On the other hand, we are still struggling to start off strong and play DePauw volleyball immediately during the first point of our first match. We are working towards being a team that starts and ends strong every weekend.”
Falotico led the Tigers in kills, totaling 11, in the first game against Wash. U. Junior hitter Elisabeth Wilson trailed closely with 10 and setter Faith Rolwes assisted 31 of 40 kills. Rolwes and Wilson, along with sophomore hitter Haley Bitzer, all had four blocks.
Wash. U. is currently ranked eighth in the Division 3 NCAA standings and the Tigers failed to go into the big game with the right mentality, according to Falotico. “We did not start the match mentally prepared,” she said. “Wash U is an incredibly competitive program, and to beat a team like that we needed to be ready to compete at the highest level right away after the first serve. We just had a slow start and couldn't catch up.”
The second game Friday picked up right where the last one picked up and the Tigers were swept in three. first-year Suzanne Peters and Wilson both had six kills while senior Keely McGrath and Rolwes had 13 digs apiece. Rolwes also had 21 assists.
Whitworth, while not nationally ranked, was able to beat the Tigers quickly.
“Whitworth challenged us in another way on Friday because they challenged us mentally,” said Bitzer. “They came out and gave it their all which I think we weren't expecting. Coming off our loss to Wash U., we were obviously down so playing against their high energy was challenging too.”
The Tigers started playing “DePauw volleyball” on Saturday, looking much more like the team that earned an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament last year.
In the 3-0 sweep of Cornell College, Falotico led the team in kills again with
10 of 38 total. Rolwes assisted 24 of those 38 kills and Bitzer had five blocks.
But the real excitement came in the next match against Hendrix, where the Tigers rallied from being down 2-0 and came back in the fifth set to win.
“The best moment of the weekend was right before we began the fifth set with Hendrix,” said Falotico. “The suspense and the excitement were at an all time high and we were playing really well. It was fun, fast paced volleyball and it reminded a lot of us why we love the game so much.”
Falotico led the team for the third time that weekend in the kill column, this time with 17. Peters added another 14 and Wilson had 13 (along with eight block assists). Rowles had 41 assists, while McGrath had 22 digs.
“The best moment from this weekend was definitely our last game against Hendrix,” said Bitzer. “Coming back from being down two sets has started to become a trend in our season but this time it was different because we really pulled together and played as a cohesive unit that was really amazing to watch.”
The Tigers next competition will be the Wittenberg Fall Classic this coming weekend.