Gustavus volleyball closed out the regular season with three wins and a loss. With wins against Concordia, Saint Benedict’s and Hamline, the Gusties secured the No. 2 seed in the MIAC Playoffs. Their close five-set loss to Saint Mary’s dropped the Gusties’ record to 21-7 overall and 9-2 in the MIAC. The hiccup certainly was not what the team wanted heading into playoffs, but it did not effect their seed. The Gusties enjoyed a first round bye and will host on No. 4 St. Thomas in the MIAC Semifinals on Thursday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m.
The win against Concordia on Oct. 21 was certainly one to be remembered. In the first set the Gusties came out strong with a 6-1 lead, but an 8-4 Cobber run spurred a back and forth battle. The score was tied 18-18 when the Gusties scored three straight, forcing a Cobber timeout. Concordia regrouped, took the lead and held off the Gusties for the win.
The Cobbers outplayed the Gusties in the second set, coming out to a four-point lead and never trailing en route to a seven-point victory.
In danger of being shutout, the Gusties could have panicked and let their play slip, but instead they came out to a strong 13-5 lead. The Cobbers battled back bringing the score back within a point at 21-20. The Gusties extended the match by winning four out of the next six points to capture the set.
The Gusties carried the momentum to the next set, where they jumped out to a two-point lead and never trailed, convincingly winning 25-16.
Concordia scored the first point of the fifth set, but the rest of the match was all Black and Gold, with the Gusties scoring the next fourteen points. Two consecutive Concordia points brought the score to 14-3, but Sophomore Lauren Hanson sealed the victory with a kill.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud of a team to play like that, to go through the adversity in literally half a match with a couple injuries and four new people on the court, that just shows their mental toughness. Nothing was going to stop them and they kept rolling in that fifth set. I was really proud of the people that stepped in and did their job,” Head Coach Rachelle Sherden said.
“We talked about how important our mindset is about getting better and having a sense of urgency each day in practice.” — Coach Sherden
Senior Taylor Trautman led the Gusties with a career-high 22 kills on senior night.
“She was in the zone and was ready to do whatever she needed tonight,” Sherden said. “It’s the epitome of leaving everything on the floor on Senior Night. She was lights out in everything; blocking, defense, and digging.”
Sophomores Brittany Luethmers and Nora Holtan impressed as well. Luethmers tallied 27 digs, surpassing the 1,000 dig mark. Holtan had 17 digs herself, as well as a whopping 59 assists.
The Gusties next contest was the next day against Saint Benedict’s. The first three sets were close, 25-21, 25-23, and 22-25, with the Gusties sitting on a 2-1 match lead.
The fourth and final set was all Gustavus, with the Black and Gold taking a 13-3 lead and holding on for a 25-15 win.
“For the most part, I thought that we were in the driver’s seat with our momentum,” Sherden said. “We did a good job of getting them out of system, which is important because they want to push their middles and right side a lot. We were slow with our blocking to start but picked it up at the end and that slowed them down. Our offense was really well spread out and dynamic. There was a lot of back and forth, long rallies, and I thought we did a good job in transition, especially after playing five sets the night before.”
Trautman led the Gusties with 14 kills and Hanson was right behind with 10. Holtan registered 42 assists, nine kills and eight digs. Luethmers again led the team with 16 digs.
A shutout of Hamline on Oct. 26 locked up the Gusties 2 seed. Holtan’s 30 assists against the piper were enough to put her over the 2,000 assists mark. Holtan is just the sixth player in Gustavus history to reach the mark; this is especially impressive considering that she’s only a sophomore.
Fellow sophomores Hanson and Luethmers played solid yet again in the victory, tallying 12 kills and 15 digs, respectively.
“Nora set one of her best matches, while ‘Traut’ [Taylor Trautman] and ‘Lo’ [Lauren Hanson] led the offense,” Sherden said. “Our serving was smart and aggressive. It was a really fun match. Hamline was super scrappy and we had a lot of long rallies.”
The Oct. 29 loss to St. Mary’s came down to game five, but the Gusties fell just short. The sets were 21-25, 25-21, 23-25, 25-17 and 12-15.
“Today was a tough battle with long rallies,” Sherden said. “It was a close one that went their way. We weren’t ourselves in serve receive and defense. We talked about how important our mindset is about getting better and having a sense of urgency each day in practice leading up to playoffs. We are super excited for next week and today made us hungrier.”
The Tommies come to town on Thursday, with the winner advancing to the MIAC Championship on Saturday, Nov. 5. The Gusties are looking to win and get the chance to defend last year’s title.