The Hopkins volleyball team continued its sucesses against Ursinus, picking up its third straight win in a dominating sweep of the Bears. After a rough start to the season, the Lady Jays have now won eight of their last 10, putting them at 12-10 for the season and 4-2 in Centennial Conference play.
The Lady Jays faced difficulties in the first set; the team hit just .093. Yet Hopkins grinded out a 29-27 win in a back-and-forth set that featured several lead changes. From the first set on, the Lady Jays took control of the match. They won the second set, hitting .344 en route to a 25-19 victory. Hopkins then put on a clinic for the supportive fans in the third set, hitting .565 en route to a 25-9 win and straight sets victory.
Freshman Liz Wuerstle and Junior Ali Cox led the Lady Jays with 12 and 10 kills, respectively. Meanwhile, setters Kristi Rhead and Carolyn Zin combined for 31 of the team’s 35 assists. Defensively, Senior Anne Cohen led the way, notching 16 digs and four service aces, while Freshman Mereze Visagie had two solo blocks.
Visagie attributed the early game struggles to the high-paced play of the Bears.
“Adjusting to Ursinus’s tempo was difficult,” Visagie said. “We made too many unforced errors, especially with untimely service errors near the end of the match.”
Despite the rocky start, Visagie believes that the team has grown and matured during the recent stretch of games.
“We’ve really been working on mental toughness during our practices,” she said. “As a result, I think those skills helped us to keep our composure so that we could play our game and win the [first]set.”
She also mentioned that specific adjustments the team made included focusing on players’ individual responsibilities, being mindfully aggressive and playing hard at all times.
“Our aggressive play helped us to dominate in the second and third set,” she said. “Making adjustments to our blocking game allowed us to shut down their primary outside attacker.”
Visagie feels the team is beginning to hit its stride after a rough start in which the Lady Jays were unable to put together a winning streak.
“We began to find the right balance between the growth mindset and competitive energy,” she said. “We still need to improve on staying mentally tough and eliminating runs of unforced errors, but the Ursinus match really demonstrated that the hard work that we put in the practice gym and weight room is beginning to pay off.”
The Lady Jays play host to Haverford at 1 p.m. this Sunday.
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