Indian River Volleyball Travels to Salt Lake

Indian River Volleyball Travels to Salt Lake

For one of the first times in the history of the program, IRSC volleyball takes to the skies and travels all the way to Salt Lake City for their opening weekend tournament. Leaving early on Thursday they arrived at Salt Lake Community College straight from the airport to hopefully adjust to the elevation and knock some rust off before taking the court on Friday.

With only three returners from the 2021 season, a very young lineup took the court at noon on Friday ready to make a name for themselves. The first set was clearly one riddled with nerves at the River came out a little slow and were beaten badly 25-12. The nerves would not last as they bounced back to take both of the next two games at 25-23, taking a 2-1 lead with the momentum. Things were looking bright for the River, but CSI was not giving up and didn't stop applying pressure for the whole match. After evening the series at 2-2, the Pioneers came out aggressive taking a 8-2 lead, only to have the momentum totally reversed at the end. The River ends up losing 15-13 in the 5th.

With only a few hours between sets, the Pioneers took the court again, hungry to get back the win they had lost out on earlier. However, #8 ranked in the country, Snow College, had other plans. Snow came out firing and showed why they are a top 10 team in the nation, jumping out to an early lead with their impeccable defense. River dropped the first set 11-25. Bolstered by the attack of Greta Klotz the Pioneers made a push in the second and third sets keeping the games close in the beginning. Ultimately though, Snow made too few mistakes for the River to make any real runs, and they were able to sweep IRSC wit scores of 25-17, and 25-16.

On to Saturday! After a day of acclamation and play together, IRSC Volleyball had another tough challenge ahead of them with #14 in the country, Utah State Eastern. This young and scrappy team seemed to be a good matchup on paper, but USUE came out fast. The Pioneers looked like they were playing catch up in the first set, dropping it 25-18. Moving into the second set, Re'Na Ashley helped lift the team with her 10 kills on offense, but it was not enough to stop USUE and they proceeded to take care of business in the second and third sets as well. They finished the sweep of the Pioneers with scores of 25-18 and 25-15.

Moving into the last match of the tournament, the Pioneers faced the tournament hosts, Salt Lake Community College. Putting aside the other matches and how tired they are, they came out ready to play and were not going to quit. SLCC got off to a hot start with their serving and the River was left to play catch up for the majority of the first set. They made up some ground but eventually lost 25-17. They could have given up but the Pioneers showed some heart and came back out to play their best set of the weekend, totally changing the momentum and taking the second set with a 27-25 win. All square and ready to pounce, IRSC takes the court for set three. SLCC came out angry, and jumped on the River early. This time the fatigue was too much and they were unable to battle back, losing 25-11 and the third. The River would make one more push in the 4th set but the experience and cohesiveness of #11 ranked SLCC was too much for IRSC, and they would ultimately fall in the 4th 25-19.

Overall, not the results that River was looking for in the win column, but great experience and a great building block for the rest of the season.

The IRSC Volleyball team will be back in Ft. Pierce on August 23, at 5:30 pm, to take on South Florida State College.