No. 7 Saint Xavier University Men's Volleyball Falls to No. 3 Missouri Baptist
- Cloda McCormack
- Feb 13, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 3, 2020
Saint Xavier Freshmen Cameron Petrusevski with a friend who drove 3 hours to see him play
After playing three close games, Missouri Baptist University cinched a Valentine’s Day win against Saint Xavier University this past Friday. Not only did Missouri Baptist have the home court advantage, but they also had more experience as a higher ranked team.
Traveling five hours from Chicago to play in Saint Louis, Saint Xavier slowly lost momentum as time went on, losing three straight games 25-23, 25-22, and 25-14. When asked why the team allowed the gap to increase, freshmen setter Cameron Petrusevski said “I think it was a mix of a lack of communication across the team, us letting the earlier loss affect our mindsets, and just general tiredness overall.” SXU had played another game earlier in the day against Clarke University, which they won in three games.
Although the team was unable to pull it together enough to beat Missouri Baptist, head coach Tom Ryan was happy with their effort, saying “We didn’t win, but you can’t win them all. It was a good experience, and they showed their competitiveness in how close the first two games were. We know what we need to work on and definitely made some errors that we shouldn’t have.”
Out of Town Fans
One group of fans had driven three hours from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri just to see a friend from home playing for Saint Xavier. All three girls were collegiate volleyball players themselves, and one said “It did throw me a bit off guard seeing the difference in how men and women’s teams play. There were definitely some passes and plays that would never work for us because they just seemed uncoordinated, but for some reason it just works for them.” Their season ended in November, and watching this game left them itching to get back out on the court.
Throughout each game, the crowd of 122 people were entertained by upbeat pop music and sideline support from team members. Each team had different chants for different players, used to boost their confidence when serving. When asked about one particular chant by Saint Xavier University, “sticky,” Cameron Petrusevski said “When he was saying sticky he was meaning for our passers to stick the pass from the server. It just helps us cheer each other on, to stay connected especially in harder games.”
Saint Xavier will be playing next at home on February 18th against Cardinal Stritch University, and Missouri Baptist will be playing away in Lincoln, Illinois against Lincoln University also on February 18th.
This was a very well written news article. It used clear and concise language to convey information to readers in an effective way. By answering the 5 W's and correctly using the inverted pyramid style, this article utilized good news writing style and structure very effectively. The quotes you pulled from the players and coaches were effective in telling their respective thoughts and feelings during and after the big game. I also really liked your use of sub headers which made the article very well structured and easy to read. The only suggestion I have is to cut out saying "this past Friday" when discussing the date of the game since that dates your article for readers. Otherwise, great job!
This was a really good story! Being in the volleyball world I know how competive the Missouri baptist volleyball team is. You did a really good job summing up the game. The quotes from the player and the coach were really good. They gave emotion to the game and the story. I also liked how you showed the fans perspective of the game. The crowd is a big part of the game. I really enjoyed reading your story!
Great story! I liked that you captioned your photo, it gave readers a good idea of the context of the photo. The quote from Tom Ryan was used well, and showed the attitude of the players. One suggestion is in the lead maybe include what sport they are playing.
This is a really good article! This article was very concise and had a lot of good news writing style but also your own twist like when you said "itching to get back on the court." I really liked the quote from the player and the coach and how they still had a positive attitude after the game. This piece definitely had an inverted pyramid style to that had the major details then went more into minor details. I thought the lead was good it may have been a little long but I thought it was interesting and hit the 5 w's. However, you maybe should have been more specific with the last Friday part, I think it talks about…