photo by Sydney Schaefer
Freshman outside hitter Kristi Chenarides spikes the ball against Indiana Kokomo on Sept. 19. The Pioneers won 3-2.
photo by Haley Wisniewski
The Women’s Volleyball team raise the bison hand sign during a timeout. They won 3-2 against Indiana Kokomo, a 10th consecutive win.
The Point Park volleyball team’s two winning streaks have both come to an end – the first, a 28 consecutive game streak, was snapped Friday against Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (KIAC) opponent Indiana University Kokomo, and the second, an 11 match streak, ended Saturday against ninth ranked Wheeling Jesuit.
“The winning streak was really a confidence booster for our team,” Shiloh Simonson said. “We wanted to have a great record so it became a goal for us to keep the streak. Ending the streaking was not too devastating. It was bound to happen at some point. I was just really proud of how far we made it.”
Point Park was tested last Tuesday against Fairmont State University and the Pioneers pulled through, winning 3-0. The first game was 29-27, which was the second consecutive set that Point Park won by that margin. The Pioneers had four set points before winning and Fairmont State had two.
The pivotal player in the second game was Kristi Chenarides, as the freshman outside hitter had 10 kills after being inserted into the lineup. Her added intensity helped the team finish off the win.
“This was a really important game for us and we had nothing to lose. We wanted to go out there and do what we could, especially with the hard hitters that we have. There’s nothing that can stop us,” Chenarides said. “We have great defensive players that can get anything up and both of our setters are amazing, so there’s no fear for us. We can keep swinging away.”
The Pioneers were tested against IU Kokomo three days later and the result was a 3-2 victory.
“It’s good to be number one in our conference right now,” middle hitter junior Keaton Sausman said. “We’re undefeated in [the] conference and we have a strike against us, so it feels great to come together to win in five.”
In the first game, Point Park was down 24-20, just a point away from trailing 1-0, but the Pioneers battled back and won 27-25. The second set saw the end of the streak with IU Kokomo winning six consecutive points in the middle of the game. The teams traded the next two games to force a fifth and deciding set. Point Park would take an 8-1 lead and won 15-9 to take the match.
“We went out there fearless and that was the number one thing,” Sausman said. “It was good to play fearless and the results show.”
The week concluded Saturday with a split against West Virginia State and Fairmont State.
A 3-1 victory against West Virginia State started the day. However, a 3-0 loss to Fairmont State ended the 11 game winning streak and put the Point Park record against NCAA Division II schools to 3-1 this season.
Last season, the Pioneers were up and down winning seven matches before dropping eight immediately after. This season, Point Park won two matches before dropping six contests. Now that the recent winning streak has ended, Simonson hopes not only to avoid another losing streak, but to have another string of wins, starting with Wednesday’s contest against West Liberty.
“We have a stronger team this year and our bench has just as much talent as the girls playing on the floor, so if things start to go bad, we have options,” Simonson said.
