The Lady Colonels volleyball team went 0-3 in the Kathy Trosclair Memorial Tournament by dropping matches to Tulane, Georgetown and Southern Illinois.After losing a 3-0 decision to the Tulane Green Wave on Friday evening, the Colonels (0-3) were again shut out 3-0 in both matches Saturday against Georgetown and Southern Illinois.
In Friday night’s loss, the Colonels came out the gates strong in game one, surging ahead of the Green Wave 9-3. However, Tulane came right back and proved to be too much, taking the set 30-23.
Lady Colonels head coach M.J. Engstrom said playing three freshmen along with poor passing hurt the team.
“We played three new freshmen, and it will just take them some time to adjust to their roles on this team,” Engstrom said. “The biggest thing we need to improve on is our passing, and that’s something we stressed to them heading into the season. Tonight’s game simply saw Tulane building a lead that we couldn’t overcome.”
Engstrom said Tulane’s experience helped them come back and beat the Colonels in the first game.
“The difference between a younger team and a more seasoned team, which Tulane is right now, is that we started out on emotion, we made some plays, and then Tulane started making adjustments,” Engstrom said. “That’s what you see with teams that are older: They start to make adjustments to things that the other team is doing that are working. If we were a little more mature, then we would make adjustments to their adjustments, but we haven’t gotten to that point yet.”
Games two and three saw both teams fight point-for-point in the beginning before Tulane took control to win both games 30-17 and 30-16 respectively.
For the game, Tulane hit for a .342 percentage. They held the Lady Colonels to a .061 attack percentage.
Engstrom said passing is an issue her team still needs to work on in order to improve their hitting.
“Passing and ball control are a key factor, and those are things we worked on heavily in preseason and will continue to work on,” Engstrom said. “If you can’t pass and run an offense, you might get a hit off, but the defense knows where we’re going. When you’re setting and you only have one option and that one option is a player who doesn’t have a lot of experience, and they’re up against big, good blockers, that usually translates into not terminating.”
Tulane had three players with double-digit kill totals. Middle blocker Deva Fowler had 15 kills while outside hitter Sarah Weiland and right-side hitter Blair Moon had 13 and 10 kills respectively.
Middle blockers KaLeigh Butler and Atina Porter, both sophomores, and senior middle blocker Brenda Ross all recorded seven kills for the Colonels while junior libero Ashley Miksch had a stellar game on defense with 14 digs.
In the first match Saturday against Georgetown, the Colonels engaged themselves in a battle with the Hoyas but fell 30-22 in the first game.
In game two, the Hoyas hit an impressive .464 en route to a 30-17 victory.
Game three saw the Lady Colonels hang tough with the Hoyas but fall in the end, 31-29.
Butler’s 10 kills and four block assists led the Lady Colonels. Sara Albert led the way for Georgetown with 13 kills and a .632 hitting percentage while Rachel Nelson added 11 kills for the Hoyas.
In the final match against the Southern Illinois Salukis, the Colonels vaulted out in front early only to see the Salukis rally to win the first game, 30-27. Southern Illinois then proceeded to take games two and three by counts of 30-18 and 30-23, respectively.
Southern Illinois had a .333 attack percentage while holding the Lady Colonels to a .101 clip.
Salukis’ outside hitter Jene Pulliam led the squad with 14 kills and six digs while right side hitter Haley Mann chipped in with 12 kills.
Ross led the Lady Colonels with nine kills while Miksch had 13 digs.
The Lady Colonels will return to action Saturday when they travel to the University of Arizona to participate in the Four Points University Plaza Wildcat Classic. Nicholls opens tournament play against Arizona on Friday at 7 p.m.
