On Saturday, the Chico State women’s volleyball team delivered one last energetic performance as they closed out their season on Senior Night, besting San Francisco State in four sets, 25-20, 25-20, 25-10 and 25-20.
The afternoon began with a celebration of the seven Wildcat seniors, honored with flowers as they lapped the court with their loved ones and received an ovation from the crowd.
After the ceremony, the whistle signaled the start of the match, and the ‘Cats immediately fed off of the crowd’s energy — scoring the first point of the night.
With nothing to lose, the ‘Cats played freely and aggressively, commanding the court with powerful strikes echoing throughout Acker Gym. Collecting 18 kills in the first set, they cruised to the 25-point mark led by senior middle hitter Gwyneth Wentzel, who had four kills.
“We really had nothing to lose going into this game, SF already clinched for the postseason and we didn’t,” Wentzel said. “It was a pure happiness game, we had a fun pregame and we were ready to come out and win.”
Keeping the energy up, the ‘Cats took the same approach into the second set, playing the Gators close, up to a score of 17-15. After that, the ‘Cats offense exploded, scoring six straight points, including a chaotic rally for the 18th point.
Throughout the match there were several intense rallies. Both teams scrambled around the court to keep the ball in the air for an impressively long time.
“We work our butts off in preseason with conditioning, so I know that we’re all trained to make it through those rallies,” Wentzel said. “No matter how long it goes, we just keep working because we get the time to breathe after we win the point.”
After the ‘Cats finished the second set, they entered the third with less intensity, tallying five errors and a .034 hitting percentage. This allowed their opponent to storm back and win the next set, forcing a fourth and spoiling the ‘Cats opportunity for a sweep.
“Number 10 on SF, she just killed us on the serving line, we didn’t adjust well to all the hard serves coming at us in that set,” senior setter Caitlyn Eichhorst said. “We talked about going into the next set and keeping her off the serving line and capitalizing off her mistake. Try to put some pressure on and get in her head a little bit. It worked well.”
After refocusing between sets, the ‘Cats took the floor in the fourth set with a refreshed game plan, ready to finish the job.
With 21 kills and a .333 hitting percentage, the ‘Cats executed their game plan and dominated the fourth set, winning the match to close out the season and the careers’ of their seniors.
“Being our last game, all we were thinking was, go as hard as we possibly can,” Eichhorst said. “We really honed in on our game during the second half of the season. We really just started playing for each other and everyone who supports us.”
As emotional as the night was, the ‘Cats were glad to send their seniors off with a happy ending, earning an energetic win over a tough opponent.
“In the past we didn’t have a great record, we finished 11th last year so I’m just super happy with how we did this year,” Wentzel said. “We proved that our hard work paid off. I always say that I want to leave my mark and now, I feel like I can leave Chico athletics with that mark made. We all worked together to get this. It wasn’t just one person, all 20 of us did this together.”
The ‘Cats final overall record was 12-13. Their conference record was 8-10, putting them in seventh place, one spot away from a CCAA playoff berth.
For information about all Chico State athletics or to keep up with the game live, visit the Wildcat home page, or watch through FloSports.
Aiyana Curry can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].
