photos by Gracey Evans
The Pioneers gather for a pregame team huddle before the last home game of the
season and senior night.

Point Park’s volleyball team continues to come up short after losing three matches including on senior night last week.

“Playing on senior night with my team in front of my peers and loved ones was such a fun night,” said outside hitter Isabella Vavrek.

On Oct. 27 Point Park volleyball played University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown, which ended with scores of 25-23, 25-19 and 25-22 for a 3-0 loss for the Pioneers.

Finishing with close scores was frustrating for the team.

“These last few losses have been frustrating because we’re playing well; we just can’t seem to finish what we started,” said middle hitter Megan Branchick. “We struggle with closing.”

Against Pitt-Johnstown, the Pioneers’ put up a fight with a team total of 36 kills. Branchick and Vavrek both reached seven and Emily Meng and Nikki Inquartano added six each. On defense, the team’s libero Paige Baker, and outside hitter Vavrek both racked up 10 digs with help from Branchick and Inquartano’s five blocks each.

Many of the team’s players agree that this season has brought them closer as friends, not just teammates, which helps on the court.

“I think because of the tough year we’ve been having and the fact that we keep grinding through has brought us all together a little more” said junior Shiloh Simonson.

On their senior night, Point Park played Rio Grande for the last home match of the season on Oct. 29. Unfortunately, the night came with bad results for the Pioneers with end of the game scores of 25-20, 21-25, 25-20, 15-25 and 15-8 for a 3-2 loss.

Simonson agrees with her teammate, Branchick, and said the team needs to work on pulling through to the end of each match.

“We are capable of beating almost every team we play; we just need to get better at finishing the whole way through,” Simonson said.

The three seniors for the Pioneers are Vavrek, a four-year player for the team, as well as Baker and Cristiane Chaves, who are both transfers, but played volleyball at Point Park for three years.

Despite the team’s final score, Vavrek enjoyed her final volleyball home game at Point Park and was proud to play in front of friends.

“Although it resulted in a loss, I had a lot of fun with everyone I played with and that night was a good night,” Vavrek said.

Junior setter Madison Weldon runs a jump set during their last home game and
senior night against Rio Grande.

The match against Carnegie-Mellon University on Fri. Oct. 30 was the third loss for the Pioneers last week. Point Park won the first set with a score of 25-22, but CMU claimed the next three with scores of 25-19, 25-14 and 25-21.

Point Park has two more matches on Nov. 6 against Alice Lloyd College and Nov. 7 versus Asbury University before the KIAC Tournament at Rio Grande on Nov. 13-14.

Vavrek said the team is training hard to be ready for the end of this season.

“We have been focusing in a lot on serve-receive, which we really need to continue to do so,” Vavrek said.