On Oct. 14, the Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets had not one, but two women’s volleyball games. One was against the Muskingum University Fighting Muskies, while the other game was a non-conference matchup with the top ranked school in the country, the Juniata College Eagles.
Juniata, who entered the match on an unbelievable 27 set winning streak, pushed it to 30 by sweeping the Yellow Jackets, but not without a fight. BW put up at least 15 points in each set and lost the matchup 25-18, 25-17 and 25-18.
It was worth noting that in the first and third sets, the Yellow Jackets scored the first point, and even made the Eagles burn a few timeouts. What was also striking was that almost all the players had a kill percentage in the positive or at zero.
Junior student Sydney Simonson led the Yellow Jackets with nine kills and 21 total attacks against Juniata, while Jamie Snell, substituting libero for Lauren Gardner, led them with 20 digs.
In the end, Juniata took the game, as they got on some runs in all three sets, putting BW down in a hole that was too deep to dig out of.
However, it was not two losses for the Jackets back on Saturday, as they had a sweep of their own against Muskingum University. Like BW’s loss to Juniata, the Muskies had a valiant fight as they lost their sets 25-21, 25-19, and 25-22. Baldwin Wallace had a grand total of 41 kills, whereas Muskingum had 30. The Jackets also had a higher percentage than the Muskies in all three sets and in the entire game.
Junior student, Sam Rueda, led the Yellow Jackets with 11 points, which was answered by Muskingum’s Mackenzie Krous. In second place for points for BW was Weiner, who ended up with 8.5. The libero Gardner had more digs than anyone in that match with 23, while Olivia Zawadzki led them with a .333 kill percentage.
Meanwhile, during the game between the Yellow Jackets matchups, the team and their families enjoyed a lunch provided by some of the parents. This allowed the players to meet up with their families and bond with their teammates, something that second-year coach Kristina Fultz has been implementing.
At the same time as the lunch, the Eagles swept the Muskies 25-16, 25-16, 25-12. A few days later, on Oct. 18, the Yellow Jackets continued their Ohio Athletic Conference dominance with a clean sweep of Heidelberg by a score of 27-25, 25-17 and 25-13.
The Yellow Jackets are now 11-10 in the regular season, but also sit at a 4-2 record in the OAC.
