Volleyball avenges early season loss with comeback win

Jackets claw back from two sets down to top Pitt-Greensburg

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At the beginning of this season, the Waynesburg University volleyball team lost in straight sets to Pitt Greensburg.  Waynesburg had its chance for revenge Tuesday night, but trailed 2 sets to 0. The team came back to pull out a 3-2 win that took all five sets. 

“My thoughts in the first set were not good ones,” head coach Hayley Kirby said. “After the second set, they started to get better. We started to play better in set two even though we lost. Then the other three  sets we were fine. We all started to play well towards the end.”

Waynesburg was blown out by Pitt-Greensburg in set one, 25-14. The Jackets played better in set two, but still lost, 25-21. In the third set, Waynesburg made sure it wasn’t swept again and won, 25-23. Then things changed.

“Our blocking was really good in the last three sets,” Kirby said. “Our blocking was the best it’s been all season. Blocking hasn’t been our strongest suit but today it was.”

Waynesburg won set four by 10 points, 25-15. The Jackets continued to dominate and capped off a comeback, winning set five,15-7 to take the match. Waynesburg finished with 10 blocks on the night.

“I am going to forget that the first set happen, the other four were great,” Kirby said. “I like how we could come back to playing our game since we didn’t at first. We stopped making self-inflicted errors.”

The Jackets are now 2-8 overall and 0-2 in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference this season. Both wins for Waynesburg have been in five sets. Pitt-Greensburg fell to 2-10 overall after the loss, and has not played a match in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference yet. Volleyball will play against PAC rivals Washington & Jefferson this Thursday. 

“I want to see how we can play,” Kirby said. “We lost to Pitt Greensburg earlier this season and we had to come back in this one. I think that if we play how we did in the final three sets today we will be alright.”

This will be the first conference match of the season for W&J. The Presidents are 1-10 overall. The first set will begin just after 7 p.m. Thursday in Washington.