The Chart Online

Lady Lions suffer unexpected losses
Kristen Smith

Staff Writer

Another fall on Friday against Missouri Western marked the second loss last week for volleyball. The Griffons came to Joplin on Friday and defeated the Lady Lions in a three-game match. Southern beat Western in St. Joseph earlier this season.

"We beat them at Western and it was a big win for us," said Shannon Schultz, senior. "We knew they were going to be coming in with game faces and wanting revenge. We were expecting them to come in pumped up, and we came in pumped up, also, but just couldn't put anything together."

Middle hitter Lindsey Palaia was a big part in the victory for Western, even while suffering from an ankle injury.

According to Schultz, losing the match 21-30,25-30,27-30 was due to many unforced errors on Southern s part. Sophomore Sarah Jaynes managed 16 defensive digs against the Griffons.

"We beat ourselves and we knew it," Schultz said. "We knew we were better than them so we should have beat them."

Despite Friday's loss, Southern came back on Saturday defeating Northwest Missouri State University, 30-18,30-25,30-21.

"We had to come in more focused than we did on Friday," said Jessie Puszewski, outside hitter. "We had to concentrate on our skills and not worry about the other teams."

The team lost to Northwest earlier this season. Schultz said that the team had to figure out what they did wrong from Friday night and better themselves for their match against Northwest.

"We realized that we needed to focus," she said. "We were not focused on what was important during Friday s game.

Lady Lions offensive hitters Amy Little and Puszewski led the team in kills and defensive digs again in both games. Young Gymnasium held 103 in attendance to see the Lady Lions come back over Northwest.

"We came there to get the job done and with the same attitude that Missouri Western had on us," Schultz said. "Our hitting was incredible, we hit really well on and played really solid."

Coach Debbie Traywick gave the Lady Lions an acronym for the word "win". According to Traywick, "win" stands for "what's important now." The women decided what was important and were able to come back on Saturday.

Another team visiting Joplin this week, Drury University defeated Southern 1-3 on Oct. 16. The scores from the games were 30-23, 31-29, 23-30, and 30-28.

The Lady Lions were expecting to beat Drury as usual but were surprised by the outcome.

"They talk big, but we usually always beat them," Schultz said. "The team has pretty bad attitudes towards us."

Despite the loss, the Lady Lions look on to next week s games at Central Missouri State and Washburn University.

"If we keep focusing and playing our game, we should be able to beat any team regardless of who team it is and regardless of the competition," Puszewski said.