From Oct. 10-11, the Tigers hosted the SCAC divisional and finished a perfect 3-0 on the weekend.
The weekend of Oct. 17-18 at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Invitational, the Tigers played a few close matches and finished the weekend 1-3.
The Tigers opened the divisional weekend with a win over Southwestern University.
“I thought our team really set the tone that they wanted it more,” said head coach Julie Jenkins. “Your team’s heart and soul is based on how hard they’re going to work on defense and being scrappy and not letting balls drop, and they really did do a terrific job of that.”
They took the first two sets 27-25 and 25-20, but then fell in a tightly contested third set losing 27-29. They came out strong in the fourth set and fought for a 25-22 victory.
On Oct. 11, the Tigers beat Schreiner University handily 25-12, 25-18, 25-9.
They finished off the weekend with a 25-20, 25-15, 25-22 win over Texas Lutheran University.
Senior Maggie Emodi had a strong performance over the weekend with 37 total kills and 53 digs, earning two double-doubles. Her performance earned her SCAC Offensive Player of the Week honors.
Senior Layne Hubbard played one match during the weekend and finished with a double-double racking up 11 kills and 26 digs.
First year Kirby Smith also stepped up for the Tigers on Saturday recording 17 kills, 13 digs and 50 total attacks in those two matches.
“It was just nice being able to help my team out,” Smith said. “My performance in that first game was a little bit rough, but then after that second and third game I think I had a total of 10 kills on 25 attempts.”
The Tigers began the weekend by facing the host UW-Eau Claire on Oct. 17. They lost a close match 22-25, 25-20, 25-16, 21-25, 13-15.
“The very first match, we did a good job of maintaining energy and trying to push through the adversity that we were facing. The first couple of matches we were pretty high error in serving and that is something that we don’t normally do,” Emodi said.
In their second match of the day, they lost another five-set match to No. 12 Wisconsin-Stevens Point 25-18, 22-25, 21-25, 27-25, 15-13.
“After we lost to Eau Claire, I thought our team really showed a lot of heart and will to win against Stevens Point, and we just fell short,” Jenkins said. “We had match point in game four and we just were not finishing off the close games.”
Oct. 18, they opened the day with a 25-22, 25-20, 22-25, 25-18 win over the University of Minnesota-Morris.
They finished off the weekend with a straight set loss to No. 22 College of Saint Benedict (Minn.) 25-22, 25-22, 25-21.
Emodi was named SCAC Offensive Player of the Week for the second week in a row with 78 kills, four service aces, 49 digs, 206 total attacks, nine total blocks and three double doubles.
Hubbard was named Defensive Player of the Week finishing with 35 kills, 147 total attacks, six service aces, 85 digs and five total blocks.
Oct. 25-26, the team will travel to Seguin, Texas. to compete in the SCAC divisional at Texas Lutheran. Bulldogs.
