Volleyball aces tournament weekend

The Toledo Rockets women’s volleyball team went 2-1 in three matches this past weekend at a tournament held in Savage Arena.

The Rockets dominated their first two games of the day, defeating St. Francis 3-1 and Fort Wayne 3-1 as well. However, in their final match, they fell to Marshall in a 3-0 blowout. After the tournament, the Rockets record advanced to 6-3 on the season.

“I thought we did a lot of things well,” said coach Greg Smith. “I was overall pleased with how the weekend went.”

In the first match, Toledo put on a dominant performance, never trailing in the set and went on to win by 12 points, 25-13.

The Rockets continued to play solid into the second set. However, St. Francis caught back up and brought their score to 21. They kept the rockets on their toes and completed their comeback by winning the set 25-22.

Toledo got revenge in the third set, however, winning a tightly contested battle with a couple of strong kills at the end to close it out. Up two sets to one, the Rockets would dispatch of St. Francis after a slow start.

Toledo’s second match would go similarly to the first, with the Rockets getting off to a good start once again. The team went on to win its first set 25-21. Toledo continued the success with another dominant set right afterward, winning 25-13.

The third and fourth sets were more competitive, forcing the Rockets to work hard to keep their lead. The final set would be another closely contested one, with both teams going back and forth.

With the score tied at 22, a termination by junior Rachel Vidourek and a couple of Fort Wayne errors led to a Toledo win, 25-22.

Junior Saige Thomas was the top scorer for the Rockets in the two matches, with 28 terminations. Senior Mary O’Connor added in 21 terminations, and Carly Townsend tallied a career high 61 assists.

After the victories of the first day, the Rockets got off to quick start on day two of the tournament, going up 6-2 early. The Herd would battle back however, and, after a few volleys, Marshall took the set, 25-19.

Toledo battled throughout the second set before Marshall would return to form and eventually close out the set, winning 25-17, though in the final set the Herd dominated nearly from start, winning the set 25-16.

There were a few bright spots, but Toledo struggled for the most part against Marshall.

“We had a little bit of a problem with Marshall on the mental toughness part of our game, which caused us some issues,” said Smith. “We will address that aspect, along with others, in preparation for this coming tournament at Minnesota.”

Vidourek and O’Connor were both named to the all-tournament team. Vidourek was also named MAC West offensive player of the week, while sophomore Maurissa Leonard was named defensive player of the week.

Vidourek had a .483 attack percentage with 2.82 kills per set. Leonard had 27 digs in her first match, and then 22 and 18 in her last two respectively.

Toledo will travel to the Diet Coke Classic this weekend to take on Green Bay, North Dakota and the host Minnesota Golden Gophers.