Warrior fans gathered at the McCown Gymnasium on Sept. 14 to watch as the Winona State University Women’s Volleyball team secured a three-to-one victory against the University of Sioux Falls (USF) in their Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) opener.

Winona started off strong with a two-set lead, serving up ace after ace to score 25-22 on the first set and 25-17 on the second set. On the third set, the girls fell seven points short of a win, but pulled through with a winning fourth set of 25-19.

When asked about the outcome of the game, one fan stated, “It’s so impressive, they are all impressive athletes for sure.”

Throughout the night, Gianna Vollrath was an unstoppable spiking machine, racking up 14 kills – more than any other player on the court. Kylie Welch got the most aces of the night (three) and Taylor Pagel made like a brick wall and got the most blocks of the night (eight).

Pagel  scored sixteen points, making her the highest scorer during the game, followed closely by Jaci Winchell in second with a whopping 44 assists and 15 digs throughout the game.

According to player Sydney Paulson, this success was evidence of effective planning off the court. “I think that we executed everything we talked about before the game,” she said.

Both head coach Joe Getzin and assistant coach Kristine Fisch also affirmed such thoughts. “I feel great, I’m proud of our

Match scores were not the only way that the games scored big.

On Thursday, 443 people attended the game to support the two teams. That is 61 more people than the attendance of the WSU vs. USF game on Nov. 4, 2022, where USF beat Winona 3-0.

The crowd also showed up with team support in their minds.

Getzin commented on the importance of their fans in an interview after the game. “It means a lot to have fans support,” he said. “The team really responds to it well.”

If the team’s stellar performance is any indication, it looks like the volleyball team really did respond well to all the fans’ enthusiastic support throughout the night.

Two players, Lydia Lange, a front row outside hitter and Paulson, were interviewed after the game on Thursday.

“The key to success in volleyball is the serve and the pass,’ Lange said. “You can have all these other things in volleyball, but those two are what wins a game.” Paulson, Lange’s front row outside hitter counterpart on the right side, agreed, noting that a strong serve is a key to winning a game.

In the game on Thursday, the numbers showed that the girls focused on both their serves and passes, which certainly contributed to their win.

Throughout the rest of the season, both Getzin and Fisch reported plans for improvement to better the team.

Getzin intends to clean up blocks and improve the following of hitters on the opposing team. He also wants to work on keeping the tempo up throughout the game. Fisch hopes to get the team serving tougher and changing their shots.

The team took to the road to obtain another win against Minnesota State University – Mankato but will remain on home turf for their third game of the NSIC against Augustana University (SD) on Sept. 21.