What seemed to be a 3-0 home opening sweep for the Lady Colonels volleyball team Friday night, turned into a 3-2 victory for the Texas State Bobcats as they came from behind to steal the Lady Colonels’ home opener.
The Lady Colonels got out to a fast start as they led 2-0 by the end of the second match. Beginning in the third match, however, the Bobcats regrouped with great plays on offense, which was initiated by two service aces to give them a 30-27 win.
In the fourth match, good play by the Bobcats and service line struggles by the Colonels helped the Bobcats win 30-24.
In the deciding match, the Colonels got out to a slow start while the Bobcats jumped to an early 5-1 lead. A late surge by the Colonels proved too little too late as the Bobcats walked away with a 15-7 win in the fifth stanza and a 3-2 (32-34, 27-30, 30-24, 15-7) win in the game.
“We had a lot of careless mistakes as far as our serving. Many of our serves were out,” assistant coach Kui Fletcher, said. “They just picked it up and played a better game than we did.”
When asked where things went wrong, head volleyball coach M.J. Engstrom said that in the second half her team needed to settle down.
“After the break we didn’t pass very well, and that is very important in our offense,” Engstrom said. “We needed to be able to settle down, but we’ll work on that along with our blocking and we’ll be OK.”
The Lady Colonels were led in kills by senior Becca Beall who had 15 for the match, while senior Caley Carter who is ranked first in the Southland Conference coming into the game in kills with 4.91 per game, chipped in 14 along with fellow Colonel, junior Brenda Ross.
The Lady Colonels didn’t have time to sit and think about the loss very long as they took on the Roadrunners of Texas-San Antonio the next day at home.
Unfortunately, the Roadrunners ran away with the win against the Colonels as they fell 3-0 (30-26, 33-31, 30-25) in the afternoon match at Stopher Gym last Saturday.
In a quote taken from Nicholls State University Sports Information Desk, Engstrom said her team has to work on fundamentals and having a healthy team.
“We have a lot of things that we need to work on,” Engstrom said. “I don’t think we’ve played an entire match with the same starting lineup. It’s frustrating for the players as well as for me, but I’m excited about the talent of this team.”
In game one, both teams started at a moderate pace, but the Roadrunners won the game by scoring the match’s final eight points.
In the second game, arguably the closest game of the match, the Colonels went down to the wire with the Roadrunners, but errors made winning the game almost impossible as the Colonels fell 33-31.
In game three, the Colonels did all they could, but to no avail as the Roadrunners ran away with the victory 26-21.
The Colonels are not having much luck at home this season, but will try to get a win on the road as they take on Stephen F. Austin on Friday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m.