The penultimate home match for the Waynesburg University volleyball team ended in an unfortunate, but familiar way. The Jackets lost for the second time this year against Saint Vincent, 3-0.
Tuesday’s loss in the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse drops the Jackets to 3-22 overall, and they remain winless in PAC play at 0-14 in conference.
After a fourth-straight loss in frustrating fashion, head coach Hayley Kirby found a small positive takeaway on a night that didn’t offer many.
“We play hard when we want to,” Kirby said. “We can play hard, but we just don’t do it all the time.”
Waynesburg was in fact tied with Saint Vincent [13-17, 8-6], twice in the first set, at 5-5, and 10-10, before the Bearcats pulled ahead to a 22-12 lead, and stopped a late Jackets run winning the first set 25-16.
Early in the second set, Waynesburg lead 7-2, but the Bearcats erased that lead with a 10-0 run, going ahead 18-11, and Saint Vincent ended the second set with a 25-19 win.
The third set was all Bearcats. St. Vincent scored the opening ten points, while the Jackets seemed visibly deflated. Waynesburg got within six trailing 12-6 at one point, but that was the closest the final set would be as Saint Vincent closed out the match by winning the third set, 25-12.
With just two more chances to log a PAC win this season, Kirby feels as though the Jackets need more heart than mechanics in order to get a conference win.
“I think it’s more inside of them, we’ve worked on every single thing we can work on and it’s not really showing,” Kirby said. “They’ve got to show some effort, some heart, some will to win, because it’s just not there right now.”
Senior Alyssa Proper shared this sentiment shared by senior Alyssa Proper. The only senior in the program has just one more game left to play in the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse.
“I just hope that we can go out, and play how we know how to play, and play like a team,” Proper said. “That’s really all I’m asking for.”
As the lone senior on the team, Proper reflected on her time at Waynesburg, and what she’ll miss most after graduation.
“I think that my teammates are probably what I’m going to miss most,” Proper said. “They’ve become family while I’m here, so that’s going to be really hard.”
Outside of practice and games, Proper wouldn’t point out any specific teammate that she’ll miss more than another.
“I’ve gotten close with quite a few of the girls, but they’re all family to me,” Proper said.
Waynesburg’s next match is Halloween night, Thursday Oct. 31 at 7 p.m. versus Bethany. It took until senior day last year for the Jackets to get a PAC win against Thiel, if that becomes the case again this year, Washington & Jefferson will be Waynesburg’s last shot, Saturday Nov. 2 at 1 p.m.