The
Northland International Men’s volleyball team opened the 2012 season by hosting
the first Wisconsin Volleyball Conference play date. The Pioneer Athletic
Center saw 8 WVC teams begin play on Saturday January 28th.
“We really
have an inexperienced team that needs to play matches to make up for the need
of getting better. We only have 2 returners from last year’s WVC finalist team.
I really was unsure of how we would play with only about 7 hours of practice
getting ready for this challenge.” The Pioneers did pick up a couple of players
after 3 players from the first semester left the program. Andrew Schilling came
back as a graduate player and has led with good leadership and ability from the
setter’s position. Miles Herron is a freshman that came to campus and brings a
great HS experience and ability at the OH position. The day began with a battle
with the Archers from MBI in Chicago. This is a team that played at the NAIA
level and understands how to play hard and be ready to rally, regardless of
score. Northland ran out to a 12-8 lead in the first set before MBI got in
rhythm and outscored the Pioneers 9-2 to reverse the score to a17-14 lead. MBI
went on to take control of the match and won 25-19 and 25-17. Andrew Summer and
Miles Herron led the attack with 6 and 7 kill respectively. Josh Netz was the
best defender with 7 digs. The Pioneers gave up numerous easy points and had
some unforced errors that complicated their chances of success.
The next
match of the day was against conference newcomer UW Fond Du Lac. Northland was
able to use all their players in different lineups and gain a 25-4 and 25-11
win. Coach Herron summarized, “It is often very easy to regulate your energy
and execution based on your opponent’s abilities. I think that is a very
dangerous proposition especially when you aren’t that good to begin with. We
need to concentrate and commit to playing the game well…all the time!” The last
match of the day was against Concordia University Wisconsin. CUW handled
Northland very easily in a preseason tournament in December. Andrew Summers,
team captain, noted, “We did not play well in the first semester against them.
We were 1-1 up to this point and wanted to end the day as one of the top 3
teams. We needed to play well.”
The Pioneer’s
started on target and got a 14-11 lead on good set selection by Andrew
Schilling and kills from Herron and Summers. The Pioneers had some advantages
in 2-3 rotations and tried to capitalize offensively and defensively. Schilling
often isolated a Pioneer hitter 1v1 and put Northland into a scoring position.
Bryce Guerrero came off the sideline to play some good defense and hit
intelligently. Pioneers went on to win set #1 by a score of 25-22. “I was
really pleased with our chemistry and desire to ‘make the next play’. We seemed
to come together a bit,” commented Coach Herron. Set two had Northland gain a
4-5 point lead and side-out consistently up to a 20-16 lead. The team rallied
and closed the set with a 25-19 score. Minshik Park was effective at the MH
position in this match getting 4 kills on 5 attempts. Miles Herron had 8 kills
on 11 swings, followed by Summers with 5 kills on 8 swings. As a team NIU hit
.225 which is a decent percentage. Josh Netz was a very steady performer on
‘serve receive’ with a .89 passing efficiency and averaged 6.2 digs per set.
Coach Herron
commented after the day was over, ‘Success comes not so much by how you
multiply your victories but by how you manage your defeats. Christian character
does not come by resting on your laurels but by how you ready yourself for the
next challenge.’ Northland travels south to Marquette on Friday,Feb. 3rd and
Moody for the next WVC playdate next Saturday, Feb.4th.