By Ally Doty
The Pensacola State College Volleyball team battled tremendously in the Pensacola State Invitational August 30 and 31 at the Milton campus and won every match except one, making their season record 4-4.
Their opening match on Friday made PSC look tough to beat, wiping the Labette College Cardinals out, three sets to one. Freshman Caitlin Chapman showed her skills with eleven points under her belt: nine hits and two aces. She continued to show her skill set all throughout the tournament and averaged 23 points in the first day; 12 in the second game versus Wallace State-Hanceville Community College. “We need to learn to keep staying ahead and not get down on ourselves,” Chapman said.
PSC had a close call in the second game, being pushed to play four sets instead of three. They won the first two sets by five points but could not pull the third set out. They lost 25-19 but redeemed themselves in the fourth set with the help of freshman Jamelia Grandberry, who placed ten points on the scoreboard.
The first day of the Pensacola State Invitational was successful for the Lady Pirates.
Saturday, August 31, was not as successful as the Lady Pirates had hoped.
After crushing Snead State Community College three sets to none, PSC had a tough time competing with FSC Jacksonville. Try as they might, they could not keep up with FSC’s consistency and fast paced hitters and that resulted in a loss, 3 sets to none; PSC’s only loss of the tournament.
“FSCJ is a tough opponent but I am really proud of our efforts,” Coach Chris Laird commented after the tournament. “We played well, but we just got beat. We could have been more ‘in system’ and our ball control could have been a little bit better.”
PSC took second place in the Pensacola State Invitational and will play their home opener at the main campus Thursday, September 5.
Brianne Kuhnhausen, Gabi Arduini, Chelsea Zachary / The Corsair