By Christopher McLaughlin
The CCSU volleyball team was defeated by the Robert Morris Colonials in five sets on Saturday.
The team lost the first two sets 25-23 and 25-22 before bouncing back to win the next two sets 25-18 and 25-10. The Blue Devils (7-15, 4-6 NEC) would go on to lose the final set 15-9 to complete the match.
“The first two sets could have gone either way,” said Head Coach Linda Sagnelli. “Unfortunately, a couple volleys went against us and we weren’t able to come out on top.”
RMU was able to jump out to a two set lead thanks to timely attacks. The Colonials had a lower kill percentage but were able to score more kills than CCSU. The team was also able to record more digs and assists than CCSU, although the numbers were close.
CCSU was able to keep the first two sets close because of their dominance on the net. The Blue Devils had 12 blocks to RMU’s four during the first two sets, but were still unable to get the victories.
CCSU also had to adjust to playing without Tori Vaughn in the middle as she was sidelined with an injury.
“I’m incredibly proud of the way they were able to adjust,” said Sagnelli. “We only had one day of practicing with Sara DeLacey in the middle but she did a phenomenal job once she got into a rhythm. Putting her in the middle absolutely paid off, they had no answer for her.”
After losing the first two sets, CCSU showed resiliency as the girls were able to grind out a win. CCSU showed tremendous heart during the third set by staying aggressive and continuing with the attack.
CCSU combined for 14 kills during the third set, and had a kill percentage well over 100 points higher than RMU’s. As the third set wore on, RMU started to come unraveled, and began making mistakes unlike before. The mistakes didn’t go unnoticed by RMU Head Coach Dale Starr, who began berating his team after each one.
CCSU noticed them as well, and kept up their relentless assault and closed out the set in dominating fashion.
“Win or lose, all we want to see is fight. Every player has to fight, and today they all did us proud,” said Sagnelli.
During the fourth set, CCSU scored the first five points after two kills and two blocks by DeLacey. RMU appeared to be a little rattled in the third set, but during the fourth the Colonials had a complete meltdown.
With the Head Coach in an absolute fury, he called time out after CCSU jumped out to a 6-0 lead. After a minute of stomping, screaming and obscene gestures by Starr, the timeout was over and play resumed, for CCSU anyway.
After the timeout, the heart seemed to be completely taken out of RMU’s players, and they seemed to just go through the motions as CCSU continued to pour it on. While CCSU had less kills than in any of the first three sets, the Blue Devils did so with unrivaled efficiency.
Over half of the attacks found the floor, and the lead continued to grow. During the set, CCSU was able to exploit RMU on the serves, as RMU had significant trouble handling the serves from Amanda Bayer and Emily Cochran.
“Amanda and Emily got into a great rotation and once we got going I was able to manipulate the set with our serves. Both of them did an excellent job of hitting their spots and Robert Morris had difficulty getting back into rotation allowing us to get some easy kills,” said Sagnelli.
CCSU completely dominated the fourth set, and it appeared as though an epic comeback was about to happen. However, in between sets, RMU senior Amanda Graham gave an intense speech to the rest of her team that seemed to fire them up in a way the coach had been trying to achieve for the past two sets.
When the fifth set began, the atmosphere was totally different. The meltdown of the previous set was over, and RMU came out for vengeance in the fifth set. The Colonials jumped out to an early lead, which pumped up the team even more.
RMU converted kills on seven attacks, while CCSU only did on four, despite taking the same number of attempts. The fire that the coach had put out was back in RMU, and the Colonials were able to close out both the set and the match strong.
“They played great defense during the final set and we lost out on some great volleys. Despite losing, I’m extremely proud of the way we played we showed a lot of heart and I hope we play this way every match,” said Sagnelli.
