Messiah Pushes Into C'Wealth Tournament On Roll, Wins Two More
Freshman Lindsay King anchored what little defense was needed in Messiah's two wins on Halloween Saturday.

By Bryn Swartz, GoMessiah.com reporter
Grantham, PA — They may have lacked the drama of Wednesday’s 3-2 win over Lycoming College, but Saturday’s final regular-season matches were just fine by head coach Judi Tobias’ standards, as Messiah earned back-to-back shutout victories in the team’s second home tri-match of the season.

The Falcons opened Halloween Saturday with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-23, 25-21) win over Stevenson University and closed the event with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-21) decision over Eastern Mennonite University — posting their seventh and eighth victories in their last 10 matches.

Stevenson defeated EMU by a 3-1 (23-25, 25-18, 27-25, 25-23) score in the afternoon’s second tilt.

“I think we all came in expecting to win them both, given the way we’ve been playing and with post-season starting next week,” Tobias said. “I wanted to play well and we did just that. We're moving in the right direction. We passed better. We're always aiming for 2.0 score in pass efficiency, and we registered a 1.9 against Stevenson University and a 1.8 against Eastern Mennonite University.”

Those numbers helped Tobias's club post dominant attack percentages in both of their matches, as the team posted an incredible .314 clip against Stevenson (12-20), led by sophomore Emily Hall's .538 mark. Freshman Lauren Rees equaled Hall’s kill total with nine, while sophomores Cassy Diamond registered eight and Brynn Lettieri seven.

Messiah (18-13) was even better against Eastern Mennonite (10-19), hitting at a .320 clip. Rees turned in one of the more impressive single-season performances of the season, registering 13 kills on a phenomenal .579 attack percentage. Lettieri added nine kills on a .467 clip, while Hall topped the .400 marker for the second consecutive match (.417). Freshman Lindsay King hit .364, posting six kills.

With the Falcons’ offense clicking, the team’s defense was never truly tested, though Tobias’ club did register 10 assist blocks against the Mustangs and two solo blocks against EMU. King paced those efforts with six assist blocks on the day.

Messiah concludes the regular season with a 14-5 record over its last 19 matches, an enormous improvement over the team’s 4-8 start to the season. Tobias said she credits the late-season surge to an improvement in many vital areas, notably communication.

“We've been trying to stay focused on what we need to do to improve,” she said.” We've been staying focused. We struggled early on with getting to know each other and with communication. Six people in a relatively small space can be difficult and communication is extremely important. I think we've shown a great deal of improvement in that.”

Interestingly, the Falcons — who began their season with an inability to win five-set matches (losses in each of their first three matches that went the distance) — captured victories in five of the seven fifth-set matches to close the season. Tobias’ club has shown they can also spare the drama, however, as the team swept competition 10 times this season — more than half of its victories.

Just twice, and not since the middle of September, did Tobias's squad suffer a 3-0 defeat.

Next for the Falcons is the start of the Commonwealth Conference Tournament, as third-seeded Messiah will travel to Elizabethtown College to face the second-seeded Blue Jays Wednesday night at 7 p.m. Top-seeded Lebanon Valley College will host fourth-seed Widener University in the league’s other semi-final match-up.

The Falcons will return to Thompson Gymnasium just less than a month after a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to E’Town, the team’s fourth straight defeat to the Blue Jays — and third by a 3-2 score, with the fifth-set score ending in 15-12 heartbreak.

“I'm excited with where we are, where we're heading,” said Tobias. “Our matches should be good and really competitive. We have a shot. We're coming to a good point to be able to play in these matches.”