This is how much I love volleyball. And you guys. I’m writing a report on a match between two bad teams in a bad volleyball conference.
St. John’s is the better of the two, and the match actually does have some significance for them. With a win, they can qualify for the Big East tournament, which no player currently on the team ever has (the last time they went was 2008). The top eight teams in the 14-team Big East (the conference has 15 members, but Providence for some reason plays volleyball in the America East Conference) make it. But they’d have to win that tournament to get in the NCAA. And DePaul? They come in tonight at 8-18, and 3-10 in the really weak-for-volleyball Big East.
Despite the fact that this is Senior Night for St. John’s, the best player on the court is freshman outside hitter Karin Palgutova for the Red Storm, by far their leading scorer. The two teams have numerous international players, with DePaul boasting players from Puerto Rico, Belarus, and Bulgaria, and St. John’s Puerto Rico, Turkey, Slovakia (that’s Pulgatova), Poland, Bulgaria, and Ukraine.
The first set began quite sloppily, with both teams giving away points on wide hitting errors and net violations. DePaul led early, but some solid kills off the hand of Shawna-Lei Santos drew the Red Storm even and then ahead. Palgutova, one of the best servers in the Big East, gave St. John’s their largest lead of the set at 14-11 with a nice service ace to prompt DePaul’s first timeout. The Red Storm surged ahead even further behind a strong block by Santos (who is curiously listed as a libero…the commentators called her a ‘utility player’), some lazy defense allowing a tip to fall in, and strong serving by Santos. An ace prompted the Blue Demons’ second timeout, down 19-12. DePaul finally sided out out of the timeout, and were later able to rattle off a few in a row to force the Red Storm’s timeout at 22-16. The Red Storm re-established control coming out of their timeout, with Palgutova ending the set on an emphatic swing at 25-17.
St. John’s outhit DePaul .346 to .032 in the first set, showing it to have been a mess pretty much all around for the Blue Demons. Interestingly, the Red Storm changed liberos between sets one and two, going to Santos. I wonder if the original libero was hurt.
DePaul again edged out to a small lead early in set number two. A kill off the hand of Anastasiya Shutava brought their advantage to the highest it had been all night, at 7-3, prompting St. John’s to call time. The run extended to 10-3, leading to the Red Storm’s second timeout, as the Blue Demons looked like a totally different team in the second set. They were much more organized and effective both offensively and defensively. The run continued off the hand of DePaul’s top scorer Vesela Zaprynova, extending to 12-3 before it finally ended on a service error. St. John’s drew it closer for a while, but they also showed some sloppy transition play, allowing a free ball from the libero to fall in for a kill at 16-10. At 20-14, the Red Storm’s serve receive failed badly, with an overpass allowing Abbie Fleener an easy kill. That was really the big difference on DePaul’s side of the net in set two — serve receive. It was much cleaner, allowing for much better passes to the setter to start the offense. The closest the Red Storm came in this set was 6, and the Blue Demons sent it to halftime tied at 1 with a very nice 25-18 set win.
The Red Storm’s hitting percentage plummeted to -.077 in set number two…that’s never going to be good enough.
But they came out much stronger in set three than they were in set two, running to a 5-1 lead in the blink of an eye on the serve of back-row specialist Melissa Chin. Palgutova’s serve later in the set bore fruit with two picture-perfect aces, at last prompting DePaul’s timeout at 10-4. The Blue Demons rattled off a nice run coming out of the timeout, their defense and transition offense looking a lot crisper, coming within two at 11-9 when St. John’s took time for the first time themselves.
The deficit stayed right at 2 for much of the rest of the set. Though it wasn’t strictly sideout after sideout, neither team really took control. The Blue Demon setters continually feeded Zaprynova; no one else really got consistent looks. And that made the Red Storm’s job on defense a bit easier. When you know which hitter to double up on, half your job is done. Following a nice double block to put St. John’s up 21-18, DePaul took their second timeout. The Blue Demons drew it even at 21, though, out of the timeout, with mental errors on the Red Storm’s side getting them there. Zaprynova’s serve on 22-22 led to an overpass on the Red Storm side and an easy kill for Callie Huebner. Precisely the same thing happened on the next ball to give the Blue Demons set point. After a long rally on 24-22, Palgutova’s swing went straight into a Blue Demon double block, putting them up two sets to one.
Set number four began much more evenly than the first three, which had all opened up with runs in favor of St. John’s. The Red Storm finally went up 2 at 9-7 with a service ace off the hand of Milica Krstojevic, one of their better scorers on the season but someone who had a difficult match tonight. When they went up 12-9, DePaul called time. St. John’s got a lucky break up 13-12 when they got a touch called on a ball that went long, and the replay showed that no Blue Demon came close to touching it.
It looked DePaul was going to draw even on 15-14 after St. John’s had to send over a free ball, but the Blue Demons made the curious choice to not feed Zaprynova that time, with the hitter they did feed going straight into the Red Storm block. St. John’s ran that advantage up to 18-15, but the Blue Demons ran it back even at 20 with the setter Laura Witt sneaking in a two-handed dink. A double block put them up 21-20, forcing the Red Storm’s second timeout. Right after the timeout, though, the Blue Demon server gave that advantage right back with a service error at 21-21. The Blue Demons’ one senior Rachel Aumann put them back on top, and Zaprynova gave them the critical 2-point advantage at 23-21. Zaprynova got the Blue Demons to match point at 24-22, and the Red Storm made a poor choice on the final ball of the match hitting it well long and wide.
DePaul d. St. John’s (17-25, 25-18, 25-22, 25-22)
I take it back — St. John’s was not the better team on the court tonight. They were in set number one, but other than a few points here and there they didn’t look like it at all in 2, 3, or 4. They still may qualify for the Big East tournament, but if they don’t, they can’t complain too loudly. They did not look like a team that deserved to be getting any postseason play.
All right match, I suppose. DePaul’s play was downright ugly in set number one, but they really picked up steam as the match went on and looked like a completely different squad in the rest of the match. Who knows — with just one senior graduating from the team this year, and the overall weakness of the Big East for volleyball, we might hear from them next season.
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