The Quincy University Women’s Volleyball team had its first home game of the season Sept. 17. The Hawks were up against University of Missouri-St. Louis and have just kicked off their conference schedule.

Coming into the game, QU had only defeated the Tritons one other time in program history and this was a big test in front of the home crowd.

The Hawks started off hot, leading the Hawks to a close first set victory of 25-23. Makayla Knoblauch and Emma Wijnbergen led the scoring to start the game and gain momentum in the match. UMSL came back focused for the second set, and caught the Hawks off balance to take the set 25-12, leading to a best of three to take home the victory.

After the short intermission, the Hawks would begin to feed off of the crowd’s energy in the third set, battling back and forth with the Tritons to take a 25-17 third set victory. The Hawks would close out the game with a fourth set win of 25-21 to stay undefeated and move to 2-0 in GLVC play.

Coach Mark Jones reflected on the mentality his team had coming into the game.

“Being 2-0 is the best possible outcome. UMSL is an awesome team and they’re going to have a great season too. We were pushed the whole entire day and did exactly what we needed. Our players, they’re competitors, they want to win and it just comes down to a great team effort today,” Jones said.

Wijnbergen would end the game leading the hawks with 21 kills, while Hawk returners Mattison Norris and Emily Rehagan provided 15 and 16 kills respectively. This is the Hawks second victory in program history against UMSL.

Norris, a three year starter on the team, explains the preparation this year’s team had coming into the season and focusing on the game outside of the milestones. 

“Our entire approach to this season has been an approach of keeping our head down and we’re just gonna work… we really really grinded this summer and a lot of stayed on campus to workout, to get in reps, to get stay together as a team just because we knew how special this year was going to be for us and how special this team was. So coming into this weekend was honestly no different than any other weekend. If we play to our level and play as our team I don’t think there’s many teams that can beat us,” Norris said.

Many students were also excited to attend the first home game of the season, as many students let their voices be heard to provide home court advantage. Students took advantage of the home game as there are not many for the women’s volleyball team this year. While there are only six confirmed home games left for the season, students like Jayme Brain will be pushing for everyone to come out and support when they can.

“When I say women’s volleyball is electric, I mean it is outstanding. It is so much fun to go to these games, and it’s great to come back into action with women’s volleyball,” Brain said.

The Hawks next home game plans to be Sept .30 at 6 p.m.