Volleyball loses second CAA game of the season

The raucous crowd of 325 at Viera Court Friday night was “blacked out” in black Delaware volleyball shirts, but it wasn't enough to spook the Virginia Commonwealth Rams as the Hens lost in a five-set battle.

“I didn’t think we started as aggressive as we should have,” head coach Bonnie Kenny said. “We just made entirely too many mistakes. When you play at home you should win.”

Despite the home-court advantage, Kenny’s squad had 14 serve errors against VCU, which seemed to be the Achilles' heel of the team Friday night.

“Serving is one part of the game that we can control the most,” said sophomore outside hitter Kim Stewart. “If you keep serving them out then that’s going to hurt us.”

The Hens dropped the first set 25-21, won the next two 25-15 and 25-18, lost a very close fourth set 25-23, and finally lost the last set 15-10. It was only the second loss for the Hens in conference play, but the team is still in first place in the CAA standings. Kenny believed the team’s preparation could have been better.

“We were half and half this week,” Kenny said. “I thought we trained a couple days really well, and a couple days not good at all. We’ve got to start having better training days.”

Senior outside hitter Kelly Gibson noted that the fourth set was a crucial point in the match

“I think we needed to show them on the fourth game that we were going to take care of them, and we didn’t,” Gibson said.

Gibson also stated that momentum was a factor in the game. She believed losing the fourth set killed the team’s momentum for the fifth set.

Stewart also remarked on the loss.

“It’s really the toughest loss because they’re ranked either second or third in the conference,” Stewart said. “So having the rankings, it might put us below them now.”

Although the volleyball squad did not drop out of first place, VCU is now only a half-game behind them in the CAA standings.

Despite the loss, there were some notable performances. Senior captain Stephanie Barry  had a match-high 28 digs, and junior setter Jess Chason had 41 assists and 13 digs.

Confidence was not lacking after the loss, and the team bounced back to beat William & Mary on Halloween in another five-set match.

“I think we’re in pretty good shape,” Gibson said. “We can handle it. I’m hoping tomorrow we’ll bounce back.”

Barry had another 28 digs and Chason improved on Friday’s performance with 53 assists against the Tribe. It was the team’s second-straight weekend where they split the weekend series.

The Hens’ upcoming schedule favors them strongly as their next three opponents, Towson, Northeastern and Hofstra, have all lost to Delaware earlier in the season.

Stewart reflected on the team’s attitude going into the final three games of the regular season and CAA playoffs.

“We’re just going to keep going, and keep fighting, and keep trying to play hard,” Stewart said.
 

Comments

1 comments

V

Tue Nov 10 2009 16:16

Having 2 outside hitters getting the majority of the sets hitting less than 20% efficiency doesn't help win matches either. It's a different team now who's wins are more about opponents that don't play well compared with past teams that come out and dominate from the start even when their opponents are playing well.

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