Joplin, Mo. – Newman Volleyball came into Saturday's games looking to go 4-0 to start the season for the first time in over a decade. Two teams coming off of losses into Saturday were looking to prove themselves in Northwestern Oklahoma State and Truman State by stopping the Jets from going perfect in their first invite of the season.
Game 1
Newman faced a very tough Northwestern Oklahoma State team who defeated Truman State University earlier in the day in a clean sweep. After a heavily contested back and forth set Newman was able to put away the Rangers by a score of 25-20 in set 1.
Riley Daugherty helped the Jets catch an early lead in set 1 and ended the game with a total of 12 kills.
The next 3 sets saw Northwestern Oklahoma State taking control and blowing by Newman by scores of 25-21, 25-16, and 25-20.
Hannah Brisco,
Ozioma Ajekwu, and
Abby Borough joined Daugherty in double digit kills.
Coming off a loss, the Jets were poised to leave Joplin with a win and momentum going into next weekend's OBU Fall Tournament. In front of that challenge was a Truman State University team who was looking for their first win of the season.
Game 2
Like game 1, game 2 would go to 4 sets. The Jets got off to a great start in set 1 thanks to a 9-0 run shifting all the momentum to Newman with a 21-9 lead.
Salome Romp ended set 1 with her 8th kill.
Set 2 looked like it would be a repeat of set 1 with Newman going on another big run with a lead of 12-7 Truman State disappearing thanks to 10-0 Jets run. However, no team could put the other away at 25 as this set needed an extension with Truman State pulling away with a 30-28 set 2 win.
Newman was determined not to have a repeat of game 1 as
Riley Daugherty and
Abby Borough came up big with kills in set 3 stopping Truman State from making any comeback. Set 4 saw the Jets going up big early to a 9-3 lead. They held on to the lead the entire set earning the Jets a 3-1 win over the Bulldogs and earn the Jets a 3-1 start in the
Marisa Compton era.
Salome Romp led the way with 17 kills while Daugherty, Ajekwu, and Borough all ended the game with double digit kills.
Natalie Morales had a huge game with 27 digs.
Newman Volleyball leaves Joplin, Mo. and comes back home with a win and momentum going into next weekend's OBU Fall Tournament in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
