The Journal

Issue date: 10/5/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Brent Holzapfel Bursting with team spirit, (from left to right) Ian Barczewski, Sam Crafton, Tyler Fitz and Maria Ramirez, shout to try and disrupt the other players.

Media Credit: Brent Holzapfel Webster freshman Kaylee Schaefer goes for a kill during a Sept. 27 home game. The Gorloks swept Maryville in three games, in front of a rowdy home crowd.

Gorlok spirit night brought out a diverse crowd for the Sept. 27 Webster women's volleyball home game.

Most of the fans came to the game in Webster apparel, but some came in high spirits with face paint, signs, and blue and yellow attire to show their Gorlok pride.

"Gorlok spirit night was great," Head Coach Merry Graf said. "It was fun to have a large, spirited crowd. It's certainly more fun for the players when you have a crowd like that."

The Gorloks won the match against Maryville University 30-12, 30-12, 30-14.

Maryville senior Crystal Rosner, one of its best hitters, was out with an ankle injury. Graf said they seemed to be lacking some leadership and were not themselves.

"The volleyball team played great," said Ian Barczewski, a freshman audio production major. "We had a good time, and I think the team fed off the energy of the fans."

Webster students, staff and alumni were not the only ones in attendance enjoying the game. Sam Crafton, a graduate of Bayless Senior High and friend of Barczewski, held his "I don't go here" sign high and cheered for the Gorloks through out the night.

The spirit night is an event hosted by Campus Activities to promote attendance to Webster sport games.

Between the second and third game, Campus Activities held a competition for audience members to win homecoming T-shirts. Four of the more decorated fans took to the court and served the balls to try and hit the T-shirts laid across the court on the other side of the net.

At 7 p.m. Oct. 10 Campus Activities will be hosting another spirit night when the Gorloks play Washington University in the Grant Gymnasium.

The Gorloks traveled to Iowa for the Simpson College tourney Sept. 29 to 30. The tournament proved to be a downward spiral for the Gorloks' 8-1 record.

The tournament teams were tough and evenly matched. Simpson College came in with an 11-4 overall record, Buena Vista was 10-8, Wartburg College was 9-8 and the University of Wisconsin-River Falls was 8-8. Of the 10 matches in the tournament, five went to the fifth game, three went to fourth games and only two were decided in the minimum of three games.

Webster's first opponent was Simpson College.

"We came out strong against Simpson and were playing pretty sharp," Graf said. "They were a good team and forced some hitting mistakes from us. The highlight was our blocking and defense."

The Gorloks had 12 team blocks throughout the game and won two of the five games but did not take the match.

The games against University of Wisconsin-River Falls were competitive for the Gorloks. However, hitting and service errors kept the team from a win. Wisconsin-River Falls had strong attackers and ran a quick offense. The Gorloks lost in five games.

Wartburg College was the Gorloks' first match on the second day of the tournament.

"Wartburg's libero was fantastic, and they didn't let much drop," Graf said.

Webster struggled offensively in games one and two. Offense improved in game three, which led to a win, but Wartburg's middles ran a slide attack from the right side, which proved to be effective. The Gorloks' strong defense kept them in the match, but the team had a hard time earning a kill against Wartburg's scrappy defense.

Buena Vista University was Webster's last match of the day. Graf was confident the Gorloks could beat this team, but several Webster team members had head colds, and the combination of being tired and medicated didn't help.

"Games one and three were decent hitting games, but we really struggled to focus and keep our serves in," Graf said. "We missed eight serves in the match and gave Buena Vista the edge."

Junior Crystal Shelton was named to the All-Tournament team at the Simpson tournament.

The Gorloks' overall record is now 8-5 while the conference record is 1-0.

"It was frustrating going from an 8-1 record to an 8-5 record," Graf said. "However, we felt it was good to play such strong competition. Hopefully, we'll learn from our mistakes, and if we play tough against the rest of our scheduled opponents we feel confident that we'll do fine."

The next home games are 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Oct. 5 against Blackburn College and Harris-Stowe State University.

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