Beavers See First Spring Action in Portland
PORTLAND, Ore. – The Oregon State volleyball team started their 2015 spring season over the weekend. The Beavers played a trio of matches against Western Washington, Central Washington and Portland State to start the day. The Beavers played a pair of split squad matches to end the day, with some of the team facing the University of Portland and the rest of the team playing Western Washington again.
"This was a good test for all of our players,” said head coach Terry Liskevych. “This last week was very busy with 5 team practices, 6 individual sessions and 5 conditioning sessions. All of our players played 6-7 sets and we had a chance to look at a myriad of position possibilities."
The Beavers took to the court just five days after starting spring practices. They took 16 players to the tournament, including 14 returners and two new players.
The Beavers defeated Western Washington and Central Washington in the first two matches and split against Portland State 1-1. The Beavers split the team for the final two matches with half of them taking on Portland and the other half taking on Western Washington, with the first group taking down Portland while the second dropped the two-set match.
"We will get a chance to watch video this week and work on our blocking, individual defense, serving and attack termination,” said Liskevych. "We made too many unforced errors and have to work diligently every day this spring season to continue our quest to be nationally ranked team every year."
Katelyn Driscoll finished the day with 28 kills and only two errors, hitting .591 on 44 swings. Mary-Kate Marshall had 23 kills with seven errors, hitting .281. Jessi Seumalo had 10 kills along with a .381 attack percentage and six block in her first action with the team. Redshirt freshman Lanesha Reagan had six kills and only one error in her first action of the day against Western Washington. She excelled in the back row on the day, finishing with 16 digs. Setter Dana Backlund had 58 assists throughout the day and added 13 digs and four aces, including three in the final split squad match against Portland. Libero Darby Reeder had 20 digs during the day’s action and added four aces.
The Beavers will continue spring competition Tuesday, April 21 when they take on the University of Oregon in a sand volleyball completion at G3 sports in Corvallis.
For more information on the Oregon State volleyball team, follow the club’s official Twitter account at Twitter.com/BeavsVolleyball or by Facebook at Facebook.com/OregonStateVolleyball.
