Caleb Yauger

For The Yellow Jacket

Chants of, “Let’s go Waynesburg!” echoed through the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse on Tuesday, Sept. 28.

Waynesburg students simultaneously rattled the bleachers with their hands, making as much noise as possible to cheer on their volleyball team.

“The energy we had was insane,” senior right side hitter Mya Brooks said. “The crowd [that] we had was awesome.”

The Grove City Wolverines (9-5, 4-1), however, edged the Waynesburg University Yellow Jackets (8-8, 2-4) 3-1 in an intense thriller, each team scoring at least 20 points in each set.

Sets one and two were split between the conference opponents. Grove City took the first set 25-21, while Waynesburg stole the second set 25-20. The Wolverines, however, had to battle for the third and fourth sets by scores of 26-24 and 30-28.

“This loss stings more than any of the other ones we suffered last week because we truly played one of our best games of volleyball,” head coach Emily Taylor said. “I feel that my team laid it out all on the floor.”

The game highs for kills, assists, and digs were achieved by Waynesburg players.

Freshman outside hitter Makayla Osborn had 16 kills, and freshman setter Paige Cousley contributed 24 assists on the night as well.

The Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) leader in digs, senior libero Alyson Johnson, was constantly under the ball, accumulating 59 digs for the entire match.

“I definitely feel like our defense has been off-the-wall amazing,” Brooks said.

For the Wolverines, it was junior outside hitter Faith Keating that led Grove City with 15 kills on the night while freshman setter Kennedy Kerr led her team in the assist category with 21.

The previous two matchups went to five sets for Waynesburg, and this Grove City match did not feel much different.

“We want to win, [but] we just need to finish,” Brooks said. “That’s just something we are working towards, and we’re going to get there.”

Taylor admitted to the youth of the team and the growth process that comes along with that, from a player and coaching perspective.

“It shows that we’re competing and we’re not rolling over and just letting teams beat us,” Taylor said. “I’m going to be the first one to say that I’m learning right along with them [on] how to close it out.”

The Yellow Jackets will be back in action in a tri-match on Saturday, Oct. 2 at the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse. Waynesburg takes on the Thiel Tomcats at 11 a.m. and the Saint Vincent Bearcats at 3 p.m.

“Our focus this week is to earn every point,” Taylor said. “We can’t expect teams to give us games by making mistakes.”