By Ally Doty
The Pensacola State College women’s volleyball team hosted Faulkner State College, Thursday Sept. 19 at the Lou Ross Center for their second home game and sealed the win after battling four sets against the Sun Chiefs.
PSC has had a bumpy season so far with a 12-8 record; most games being on the road and tournaments in surrounding areas. Recently winning the Pasco Hernando tournament, the lady Pirates came home and trained to be ready to defeat the FSC Sun Chiefs and are ready to begin winning conference games.
Their conference record holds 0-1, after a defeat to Gulf State Community College on the road.
“It’s too early to know if we will advance further to state. We are going to have to go 1-1 first before we can say we have it in the bag,” Coach Chris Laird said.
PSC played a shaky first set Thursday night and had trouble organizing themselves at the beginning of the game. Jamelia Grandberry, who worked hard to become a starter, was pulled out after she allowed FSC to score four consecutive points. They took the next three points as well, leading the set 7-0. Lady Pirate Katie Jones broke FSC’s scoring streak after a net hit, but PSC’s efforts were not enough. As a result they handed FSC their first win, 25-16.
Rachel Cooper opened the scoring in the second set for the Pirates. The teams rallied points back and forth until a timeout was forced by FSC late in the set. Prior to the timeout, setter Taylor Linton pounded on the points with six consecutive serves and points, putting PSC up 17-10. At six feet two inches, Kaylie Badgley had six kills in this set that helped the Pirates keep the win at 25-21.
“Being taller than most players is definitely an advantage,” Badgley said after the game. “It helps with blocking the other team’s hits as well as hitting from the outside.”
Set three ran the same course as the second with the Pirates coming out on top with a second win, 25-19. Libero, Victoria Smith, took many hard hits on the back line and proved her accurate abilities.
“During warm-ups I have to make sure that my passes and free-balls are always on point,” Smith said. “Just to make sure everything can flow.”
The match was set at two sets to one to PSC who kept their momentum up just long enough to tire out the Sun Chiefs and win the fourth set; putting another win to their record.
“I don’t think we were ready to play tonight,” Laird said after the game. “Faulkner came in ready to play tonight and I think we took them lightly. Faulkner State is a good program and a good team and they really pushed us tonight.”
PSC will play their next home game Wednesday Sept. 25 at six p.m. against rivals Gulf Coast State College at the Lou Ross Center.