Cedarville wins despite low energy against Thomas More

By Danielle Cherry 

On October 29, the Cedarville women’s volleyball team beat Thomas More in four sets in a tight race to the finish. They took the first set, faltered in the second then were victorious through the next two. The final match scores were 25-20, 23-25, 25-16 and 25-23.

But from the beginning, Cedarville played like they were tired. The Saints took the lead with some good blocks, but the Jackets quickly came to their senses and began to take over the game with strong kills. Cedarville held strong in the first match and led by seven points at match point. They won the set 25-20.

But in the second, the Saints took the win, and Coach Greg Smith was not satisfied with his team’s play.

“As a team, I felt like we struggled a little bit,” Smith said.

Thomas More gained an early lead, not only because of their kills around Jacket blockers, but also because of Cedarville’s service errors—they missed four in the first set alone. The Saints’ team cheered exuberantly for each point, giving their players the drive to continue playing their hardest and swinging the momentum in their direction. 

“Thomas More put pressure on us with the serve and was beating our block pretty well,” Smith said. “We didn’t make adjustments quick enough.” 

Despite lower energy levels, Cedarville made some excellent plays, and individual players shone. Kaley Matney, the team’s setter, ended the game with the highest block count: seven. She was everywhere on the court, digging, blocking, and setting for her teammates. 

“During the match, we were talking about things we needed to get better at,” Smith said. “It’s about the attitude and where our focus was, and we weren’t there today unfortunately.” 

The team struggled mentally the whole game. Seven serves were missed during the match, more than the usual percentage of service errors for the Yellow Jackets. Compared to other games with three or fewer errors, this game stood out as having some avoidable mistakes. 

The Saints seemed to be playing a more reaction-based game, in contrast to the Jackets, who were playing a fairly clean game. The need to switch to a more reaction-based play threw the Yellow Jackets for a loop. As Smith mentioned, even positioning changes on the court needed to be sooner for the continuous attacks from the Saints. 

After a pep talk from the coach, the women took the lead in the third set. The Jackets played more cohesively in this set than in the previous two. Cassie Shields and Madelyn Hensley led the team kill after kill, racking up points. Shields ended the match with seven kills and Hensley with 16. 

A chair-gripping fourth match began with both teams desperately playing for a win: Thomas More and Cedarville both had a win streak of two in the G-MAC conference. This fourth match would decide who would lose their streak. Tensions on both sides of the court were high as the Saints’ bench cheered at every win and screeched at every loss of a point. 

The final rally lasted 20 seconds, holding the audience captive as both teams relentlessly hit and received the ball. In the end, Cedarville won the game, with final set score of 25-23. 

“It went ok. It’s great to get a win, but I felt like we weren’t all together at the same time,” Smith said.

Despite the Jackets’ lower energy, they sealed an exciting victory against Thomas More, improving their conference record to 6-3. The women’s next game is a face-off with Kentucky Wesleyan, currently ranked last in the G-MAC standings. The Jackets will look to continue their win streak on November 7 at 7 p.m.

Danielle Cherry is a freshman Biology major and writer for Cedars A&E and sports. She is a Missionary Kid from Germany and loves a good cup of coffee.

Photo by Logan Howard