VERSAILLES — Versailles lost eight players to graduation from last season’s 15-13 squad, which advanced to a Division III regional final.
Like last season, the Tigers are off to a slow start this year. They dropped to 3-7 after a 25-21, 25-21, 25-14 Midwest Athletic Conference loss to St. Henry (8-4) on Tuesday in Versailles.
“We just made too many mistakes,” Versailles coach Kenzie Bruggeman said following the match. “It’s already a hard game and then to compare with how many mistakes we make you’re just not going to win games — it’s very simple.”
The opening set of the night had Versailles taking an early 3-1 lead only to have St. Henry battle back to tie it at 4-4, 5-5, 6-6, 7-7 and 8-8 before the Redskins built a 20-14 advantage, which caused Bruggeman to call a time out.
The Tigers made a 7-5 run to close out scoring only to lose the opening set by a 25-21 score.
Trailing 12-7 in the second game, the Tigers used a timeout to get back on track and go on a 5-1 run to cut St. Henry’s lead to 13-12 and force the Redskins to call a time out.
Versailles grabbed a 21-18 lead before the visitors scored seven unanswered points to close out scoring and win the second set 25-21.
“We need somebody to be able to produce and we can’t find that person,” Bruggeman said of tweaking her lineup. “We keep giving multiple people opportunities and it’s just not consistent enough. It’s a matter of honing down in practice and making sure we get those pieces squared away because they are vital to be successful in volleyball.”
The Redskins took a third set 20-10 double digit lead using multiple scoring runs on their way to a 25-14 win.
“We didn’t do it at the beginning of the game and now we’re doing it in the middle of the game,” Bruggeman said of the lack of scoring runs. “We can’t go to anybody to put the ball away except for Emma (George) and to pair that with no serve receive and then try to have Abby (Stammen) that’s covering a lot of the court, then she is getting way more balls than what she is used to.”
“It offsets everything so you don’t have serve receive and then to boot when we do get it we miss serves. “You’re just not going to score in runs.”
Geroge has made a team-high 123 kills this season while Kirsten Bornholt is second on the squad with 57. Kate Griesdron has made a team-high 17 aces while George has made 10. Kaylee Braun leads the team with 21 total blocks.
Stammen has a team-high 130 digs. Brynne Briscoe leads Versailles with 146 assists while Bornholt has 66.
