The Park University Gilbert men's volleyball team faced a tall task by facing eighth ranked Benedictine-Mesa in their first match of the season. The Redhawks (4-0) showed why they hold such a high ranking and made quick work of the Buccaneers (0-1), 3-0.
The Redhawks earned the first point of the first set and never fell behind. They stretched their lead to eight points by the final point of the set, which they won 25-17.
The Buccaneers came out of the gate in the second half with definitively more energy. They benefited from a series of six Redhawks servicing errors in the first eight rallies. Trey Smith added a kill within that time frame to give the Bucs a 9-7 lead. Despite keeping the second set tight throughout, that 9-7 lead became one of the Bucs' only leads of the match. After that, the Redhawks regained momentum and never looked back, eventually finishing off the second set 25-19.
The third set bore resemblance to the first set in which the Bucs struggled to find their footing and the Redhawks took advantage.
Although the performance was disappointing, it was only fitting that freshmen led the way for a Buccaneers squad that features so many new faces. Trey Smith made the most of his collegiate debut; he led the Buccaneers with 10 kills and six digs. From the setter position, Hunter Miller notched a game-high 20 assists.
However, notable performances were not limited to freshmen. Freshly off of recovering from a knee injury, senior James Contreras brought some veteran leadership and added eight kills and five digs of his own.
"First match of the year, so we got those jitters out of the way," head coach Clay Webb said. "The one thing that I told the guys at the end of the match was that the great thing about this is we are only going to get better from this point on. We got those bad plays out of the way. We now know what we need to focus in on in practice, so that way we can get better and compete against them the next time we play."
The Buccaneers will have a chance to redeem themselves against the Redhawks in their next matchup on Wednesday, March 3 in Mesa, Ariz.
