Volleyball goes 0-4 at elite Bellevue Tournament
By: David Toelle, KWU Sports Information

BELLEVUE, Neb. – No matter who you are, facing three nationally ranked opponents in four matches makes for a challenging weekend of volleyball. Kansas Wesleyan played in the Bellevue Tournament, which brought together some of the top talent in the NAIA, and went 0-4 in its four matches at the Gordon Lozier Center at Bellevue University.

The Coyotes didn’t just fade away, they held their own with the fierce competition they faced, but couldn’t get a win when they most needed it, even against a beatable team in Concordia (Neb.) University.

The weekend left first year coach Rick Mischka frustrated with his team’s performance.

“We cannot win a match if we keep making mistakes after every good play,” he said. “We struggle stopping a team from scoring runs on us, and those two reasons are why we struggle even against teams that are beatable such as Concordia.”

Mischka points out that the schedule the Coyotes face is tough, and a young team that lost five starters from a year ago should struggle with it, but there are winnable games out there.

“The players just don't seem to have the killer instinct right now, and I believe that is because we have been playing teams that are nationally ranked and losing. Any team that loses this much, this early is going to struggle to find confidence,” he said. This team has the potential to do well in our conference, but just cannot compete against bigger teams due to our small numbers and inability to break out of a rut.”

Wesleyan opened the weekend with a match against No.8 ranked Northwestern (Iowa), and lost 19-25, 17-25 and 8-25. Sarah Claborn led the way with eight kills. Wesleyan’s second match of Friday matched the Coyotes up against No.15 ranked Dordt College. The Coyotes got nine kills from Claborn, and five from Danielle Griffis but dropped the match 11-25, 19-25 and 16-25.

Saturday was a day that the Coyotes hoped to pick up a win in their final match of the day when they faced Concordia, who entered the Bellevue Classic with a 2-11 record. First the Coyotes had to face No. 18 ranked Hastings (Neb.), who took out the Coyotes 15-25, 21-25 and 13-25.

Facing Concordia in the final match of the tournament was Wesleyan’s last chance to get a win, but the Coyotes again went cold in the W column. After getting routed in the first set 25-10, the Coyotes kept close with Concordia in the last two, but could not get over the top.

The Coyotes hope to right the ship this week when the head to Sterling on Tuesday to take on the Warriors at 7 p.m. The Coyotes then host Friends University on Thursday at 7 p.m., and then Tabor and York in a triangular starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

-- KWU SI --