The Bulldogs win their first match of the season and of the Bulldog Brawl tournament, Multimedia Editor Eva Hallman reports.

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The Butler volleyball team had their first win of their season and their first win in the Bulldog Brawl tournament. They won all three of their sets and their first game against Kent State on Friday at noon in the historic Hinkle Fieldhouse. They play later on Friday at 7:00 p.m. against Fresno State, and they play tomorrow against UC San Diego. 

There are some notable players in this tournament and in this first game. We have local star Junior Abby Maesch; she got 14 kills. Those 14 kills were a part of the 44 kills by Butler. Now let’s hear from that star player and Jaymeson Kinley on how they felt the match went today. “I mean, I think that we, for this being our first time and we’re basically a brand new team. It didn’t feel like that. And I don’t think that we let other people see that we were new together, and I mean, I think team chemistry was pretty well,” (Maesch). “Yeah, I think the game went really well. It’s always good to sweep a team on your home for the first weekend of opening weekend. So I think it went really well,” (Kinley). 

The iconic Butler Blue was also in attendance cheering on the Bulldogs, and now we’re going to hear from Head Coach Kyle Shondell on how he felt the girls played today and what they need to improve on for the rest of the season. 

“I thought they played really well together. I thought in an opening match the first weekend you don’t know what you’re gonna get. We looked crisper and cleaner than we should have. Played well together pass the ball well. I don’t have many objections to how we played it wasn’t clean but it’s August. I thought they just stayed the course they were a couple of times Kent State would come back and claw a few points back and didn’t bother us. We just went right back at him and took care of business. I mean, just gotta get better at everything we do. It’s super, super early. And you know, we’ll see what kind of team Kent State is then as they play the rest of your schedule and hopefully, we see what kind of team we are but we got to pass the ball a little bit better. We did a good job of that. The offense looks pretty good. Our blocking could be better and probably look good at times because people got excited about big blocks but me standing behind them knowing what to expect or blocking has to get a little bit better for match one of the season. I don’t have too many concerns.” 

This is also the first official win for new coach Kyle Shondell. Kyle is looking to expand Butler’s record later in this tournament and also get some more wins for the Bulldogs this season. For The Butler Collegian, I’m Multimedia Editor, Eva Hallman.