The Pioneer women’s volleyball team came back from a two-day trip to West Virginia with one win and one loss, bringing the team’s overall record to 3-10.
On Sept. 8 Point Park’s volleyball head coach, Mike Bruno, won his 250th game with the school, which came against West Virginia Wesleyan, with help from Branchick’s 17 kills and five blocks. Seniors Cristiane Chaves and Isabella Vavrek aided the team with 27 kills and 35 digs together.
“Its feels great to be a part of coach’s 250th win,” said junior Megan Branchick. “It makes us confident that he has reached that milestone.”
Bruno has been a collegiate volleyball coach for 16 years and has been with Point Park for 11 of them. This win has given him a career record of 366-202, and he is now 15th place on the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) wins list of active coaches.
“I came into this program knowing that Coach Bruno was an accomplished coach on and off the court,” said junior transfer student Emily Meng. “Being a transfer student, the second round of recruiting was tough for me. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going into another program that was a job. Coming to Point Park I asked Coach some serious questions so that we wouldn’t just beat around the bush, he really impressed me when I transferred and he continues to do so even in our times of doubt.”
Meng was named Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (KIAC) Volleyball Setter of the Week for Aug. 31-Sept. 6.
“I got an e-mail form our athletic director Dan Swalga on our way to West Virginia to tell me that I had been chosen to be the KIAC Setter of the Week,” Meng said. “I thanked him for letting me know, checked the KIAC website to see who else was ‘of the week-ers,’ smiled and got a fire to keep working hard on and off the court.”
Meng had 47 assists, six kills and 16 digs in the match against West Virginia Wesleyan.
On the second day in West Virginia, Point Park lost against Alderson Broaddus 3-0. The Pioneers had won three of their last four matches before they played Alderson Broaddus.
“We started off well, but we got very tired,” Branchick said. “We need to work on staying energetic the entire match. We have been doing a lot of conditioning to reach that goal.”
Junior Shiloh Simonson and Chaves, the team’s middle hitter, had nine kills each, with nine and 12 digs respectively. Libero Paige Baker had the most digs for the team at 14.
“It all comes down to our ball control with that third set,” Meng said. “Our court awareness had a lot to be desired. The communication was there in the first set, trailed off in the second and we took a beating in the third because of it. We weren’t forgetting about the last point, we were dwelling on it, and with volleyball, you just can’t do that.”
The Pioneers next matchup is on Sept. 16 against fellow KIAC team, Carlow University.
“We are putting in a lot of work for the game against Carlow,” Branchick said. “It’s a home conference match, so it’s huge. We have been pushing ourselves harder as a team and are really hungry for the next win.”
