Westmont volleyball coach Patti Cook said her team didn’t have its best match on Friday, but the Warriors were still good enough to get past a scrappy Williams Jessup team for their 24th straight win without a loss. The scores were 25-16, 25-16, 23-25, 25-16.
“We did not play up to our potential,” Cook sai. “I thought we were a little lackadaisical. It showed pretty early in the match and William Jessup definitely took advantage of that. They are a well-coached team, they have a lot of fire and they are pretty scrappy. I felt like we didn’t come prepared to play our best.”
The Warriors improve to 24-0 and 9-0 in the GSAC, while William Jessup is 9-12, 2-7.
William Jessup’s win in the third set was Westmont’s first setback in a GSAC match.
“We just didn’t play our game,” lamented Cook. “We were playing a little timid and we can’t get into that. Once we were playing timid, our passing started to fall apart. Our hitters were doing a nice job of tipping early on, then William Jessup adjusted to it and rather than getting back to being very aggressive with high swings, we stayed kind of timid. It isn’t our game. It’s not how we like to play. William Jessup did a nice job of trying to force us into that and we didn’t answer back until the fourth set.
“As much as we don’t like to lose a set, I think it can be a very invigorating thing,” added Cook. “We realized we weren’t playing the best and we needed to pick it up. This team in particular is good at not getting rattled when we get down or lose a beat. They just get determined. They don’t let up. They start to push harder.”
Libby Dahlberg had a big night for the Warriors, hitting a remarkable .636, putting the ball on the floor for 16 kills out of 22 attempts.
“It felt like every single time she went up to put the ball away, she did,” said Cook. “She owned the net in that way. She also was blocking pretty well.
“Alexa (Nestlerode) played pretty solid,” offered the coach. “Her serving was great and she was making some very nice sets. Kami’s (Troesh) passing was very good.”
Nestlerode notched 27 assists while Troesh posted 13 serve receptions and 13 digs. Jessica McCann added 10 kills with a .333 hitting percentage while Taylor Beckman and Sam Neely added 9 kills each. Mila Maricic tallied 8 kills and posted a .400 hitting percentage.