On October 26th the Hamilton Hawkeyes faced the Spring Lake Lakers in a long lasting, well fought game. The overall set score was 3-1 with the Hawkeyes beating the Lakers. You could feel the energy as everyone in the student section was on their feet cheering.
In the first set of the game, the Hawkeyes had an early lead, until the rest of the set being neck and neck with both teams trading points. In the end of the first set, the Hawkeyes won (25-22) with a final kill from #21 Sydney Wedeven (senior).
In the second set of the game, the Hawkeyes were on a struggle bus, trailing the majority of the set. And unable to recover except for Hamilton's biggest lead by 1 point (6-5) early in the game. You could tell from the audience that the Hawkeyes had a lot of confidence after their first set win. This confidence led to a downfall in the second set but, Hamilton never lose their drive and continued to fight for the lead. Towards the end of the set the Lakers were up (24-19) meaning it was game point. With this deficit the Hawkeyes saw it as an opportunity to strike back coming back (24-23) but the effort just wasn’t enough with Hamilton ultimately dropping the set (25-23).
In the third set of the game, we saw a very similar early game as the second set. The Hawkeyes had an early lead but couldn’t keep it for long. Throughout the game, Hamilton was continuously trailing by 3 points. (9-12) (10-13) (8-11) But this trailing, yet close game, contributed in Hamilton soon winning the set once again. In the end of the third set, The Hawkeyes win (25-22).
The final set of the game, the two teams brought all the energy to the game and the crowd. Every one of the players, including the audience knew that this could be the end of the game, in hopes of Hamilton winning once again. Late in the set, every traded point brought the audience to their feet. You could hear the stress and excitement in everyone's voices. The Hawkeyes had a pretty good lead midway through the game. Including a score as much as (15-9) with Hamilton up. Towards the end of the set the Hawkeyes struggled to hold their grip on the lead. But with Hamilton up (24-19) everyone was fairly certain that this was ball game and the Hawkeyes were going to walk away with the win. But this point by point proved to not be as easy as we all thought, with Spring Lake coming back (24-24) Now, after the timeout, Spring Lake gets another point on Hamilton making the score (24-25) with the Lakers now leading. Everyone was now on their toes, very anxious of Hamilton losing. But #11 Maddie Jamrog brought Hamilton's hope back once again after tying the game (25-25) Once again the same scenario continued. The Lakers put in another point making the score (25-26) But then Hamilton responded with another point of themselves. The end of the set resulted in Hamilton winning (29-27).