MSU Denver senior outside hitter Amy Wong had 11 digs to help her team beat Black Hills State University Sept. 15 at Auraria Event Center Photo by Cosme Lindstrom-Furutani
MSU Denver women’s volleyball ran away with a win on Sept. 15 at Auraria Event Center against Black Hills State University. The No. 9 Roadrunners won in straight sets dominating the Yellow Jackets and pushing their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference record to 2-0.
The first set was the closest of the three sets it took MSU Denver to send the Yellow Jackets home early. It came in a 25-20 victory where the lady Roadrunners controlled the game much of the way.
After being up 21-16 to start the first set MSU Denver let Black Hills crawl back into the game to make it 21-20. At which point the Roadrunners’ head coach Debbie Hendricks called a timeout to speak with her team.
Hendricks had confidence in her team, making minor adjustments throughout the game.
“We adjusted our block, a little bit against their left side hitters,” Hendricks said. “We didn’t make that many adjustments. We stuck with the game plan we had from the beginning.”
The next set was all Roadrunners as the ladyies came away with a quick 25-14 win.
The set was defined by the team’s ability to pass the ball well. The offense filtered through senior setter Vanessa Gemignani who had 24 assists on the day.
“Our passing was on point and that’s a game changer for us. When our passing is on our game is on,” Germignani said.
Good passing was not the only thing the ’Runners were doing right. The team set some goals after their 2-2 performance in the recent Colorado Premier Challenge tournament and they stuck to them. One goal was reducing errors, which were a problem for the ’Runners in the past. Against Black Hills State the Roadrunners only committed 12 errors.
“We gave ourselves some goals at the start of conference and we achieved all of them,” senior outside hitter Amy Wong said. “We wanted to take care of teams in three when we had the chance to. We wanted to be low-error, which we definitely were this weekend, and overall it was just a great way to start Conference.”
The Roadrunners are on a three-game winning streak. Wong has been a leader the whole way and this game was no different, as Wong led the team with 14 kills and 11 digs.
The final set echoed the first two, as the lady Roadrunners pulled out a 25-18 win to close out the match.
The whole team stepped up, as multiple players were major contributors to the win. Sophomore right setter Lauren Quijano came away with 11 kills and freshman outside hitter Kylie Haun had 8, while junior defensive specialist Alex Green had 10 digs.
The Roadrunners had a very successful weekend as they also came away with a win on Sept. 14 against Chadron State College, 25-15, 25-21, and 25-10.
Leading the team, Haun had 10 kills, Wong had 9 and Quijano had 8. Gemignani directed the offense again with 22 assists and 8 digs. Green, Wong and sophomore defensive specialist Savannah Garcia each had 10 digs on the day, as well.
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