(Editor's note: University of Providence press release)
GREAT FALLS— The No. 5 University of Providence women's volleyball team cruised past Florida College in the 2021 NAIA Women's Volleyball National Championship Opening Round on Saturday in Great Falls. The Argos (26-2) defeated the Falcons (20-19) 25-10, 25-14, 25-13.
"They were ready to go," head coach Arunas Duda said. "Coming off the Frontier Conference Tournament last week, we had a great week of practice. The girls were ready to play and showed it in the first set for sure."
The Argos were all over the Falcons from the jump and never let up. The Argos had a hitting percentage of .318, compared to the Falcons to -.038 for the entirety of the match. Sadie Lott led the attack, recording 11 kills on an astounding .409 hitting percentage. Jenna Thorne added 10 kills for the squad.
The Argos dominated defensively by committee, with three players, Lott, Adysen Burns and Sacha Legros, all recording exactly 10 digs. As a team the Argos recorded 14 blocks, led by Lott's five.
"They got hard on themselves in that second set after a few errors here and there," Duda said. "I had to remind them that this is a National Tournament game. I told them to enjoy that they get to host it and play in front of their home crowd. They loosened up a little bit and just played."
Emma Noskey led the Falcons with seven kills, while Krista Trimble notched six. Emilee Selvidge recorded 18 assists while Adriana Bravo had 16 digs.
The win solidifies the team's spot in the NAIA National Championship. The 24 winners of the opening round games will be split into eight pools of three teams on Sunday. The Argos will get two guaranteed games against the two teams in their pool, with the winner of the pool advancing to an eight-team single-elimination tournament. The first games of pool play will start on Nov. 30 in Sioux City, Iowa.
"We're down to the final 24," Duda said. "We're going to have two good opponents. We're going to do a lot of film study once we know who we got. We're excited to be there."
