The DePauw volleyball team, now 18-7 on the season, travelled to Grand Rapids, Michigan this weekend for a tournament against some of the top ranked teams in the country.
“This weekend was definitely a weekend of improvement. Every aspect of our game had improved and it definitely showed,” junior Keely McGrath said.
The Tigers split the four weekend games. On Friday they dominated Wheaton College 3-0 (25-15, 25-11, 25-18) before losing 0-3 to the hosts — fourth ranked Calvin College. (25-11,25-18,25-19)
“We're really proud of this weekend overall," junior Sarah Burtenshaw said. "We didn’t come out strong against Calvin, but we learned from that mistake."
Against Wheaton, junior Lauren Falotico led the Tigers with 13 of the 46 total kills. Senior Mary Kate Etling, who had 10, followed her. Setter, junior Faith Rowles had 32 assists. McGrath, in addition to her 15 digs, also had four service aces.
“We served aggressively and had excellent serve receive,” Falotico said. “These two strong parts of our game allowed us to be in system a lot and we were able to run a fast offense.”
In the loss to Calvin College, sophomore Elisabeth Wilson and Burtenshaw both had seven kills. Wilson also contributed three blocks. Rowles assisted 24 of the 30 team kills, and McGrath had 14 digs.
“The entire team did an amazing job this weekend,” McGrath said. “Each aspect of the game had something it needed to work on this week in practice and those improvements showed throughout our play this weekend, which was a success in itself.”
On Saturday the Tigers travelled to Holland, Michigan — about 30 minutes from Grand Rapids — to take on number one ranked Hope College (21-0) and Kalamazoo College (9-14).
“Going into playing Hope, the number one ranked team, [we] had an extremely positive, upbeat attitude,” junior Molly Rinehart said. “We knew how talented they were, but we had nothing to lose.”
While the Tigers fell to Hope 3-1 (16-25, 25-23, 23-25, 18-25), they were able to hand the undefeated Dutch only their fourth set loss on the season by taking the second game.
“Even though we didn't beat them, we were able to compete with them, which is a victory in itself,” Rinehart said.
Hope won out the last two sets to earn their 21st win of the season
“Our game against Hope was a blast,” Falotico said. “The pace was fast and challenging. We knew that if we wanted to compete with Hope, we would need to be extremely aggressive. We played really well, and even though we lost, we are proud of our competitive play and attitude in that match.”
Falotico led the Tigers with 12 kills and Rowles totaled 32 assists. McGrath had 27 digs and three aces. Falotico and Etling totaled five blocks each.
“The team did an amazing job on defense,” Rinehart said. “Hope College and Calvin College had some of the strongest hitters we have faced all season and our defensive specialist really stepped up and shut down their hitters.”
Despite the loss, DePauw’s confidence is high after their strong showing against top competition.
“I believe that we played the best games we've played all season against Hope,” Rinehart said. “We had Hope's fans coming up to all of us players and our families after our match complimenting our play, which is just shows how impressive we played. We gave Hope a run for their money and most teams they have faced haven't been able to do that.”
Against Kalamazoo, Falotico again led in the kill column, this time totaling 15. Following her was Burtenshaw with 10. The Tiger’s had a team-best attack percentage this game: .588.
“We kept our speed up and our game clean against Kalamazoo and Wheaton,” Burtenshaw said. “That’s why we were able to sweep both teams.”
Rowles assisted 31 of the 48 kills, McGrath had 14 digs and Wilson had three blocks.
“This weekend was crucial for our team to realize that we can compete and beat the best teams in Division III,” Falotico said. “We will continue to have this competitive mindset moving into the rest of the conference season.”
The Tigers have a couple more conference games until the NCAC tournament beings. The games against Hope and Calvin, while they didn’t end with a victory, were beneficial for DePauw in a different way.
“It was good to play top competition especially to prepare for the conference tournament coming up,” Wilson said.
“This weekend only reinforces what we already know--we have to treat every opponent with respect.” Burtenshaw said.
Beyond that, it’s helped instill a feeling of poise for the Tigers.
“This past weekend gives us a lot of momentum going into our next 4 conference matches,” Rinehart said. “I feel sorry for the teams we play in the next couple of weeks. The team has developed a confidence that is going to make us unstoppable.”
The Tigers next game is at The Rose-Hullman Institute of Technology on Wednesday evening.