October 11, 2005

"BETTER EVERYDAY"

The Official Newsletter of Guilford College Volleyball

10/13 @ Peace 7:00 PM

10/15 @ Randolph-Macon 11:00 AM

Vs. Catholic 1:00 PM

Last Monday’s match was the second of the year between Guildford and the Spirits of Salem College.

Coming off a great performance against Eastern Mennonite University, the Quakers looked to make quick work of a weak Salem line-up. Quick, easy work it was.

If you weren’t there to witness it, you missed something special. In their three game victory in which they yielded at total of 33 points to the Spirits, the Quakers rattled off almost as many service aces—26 in all! The total was a school record for a three game match, and only two shy of tying the overall school record of 28 aces.

Last Thursday, the young Quakers traveled to Roanoke College for an ODAC match-up with the Maroons.

Sensing that Roanoake was reeling, Guilford continued to push offensively, thanks in very large part to its serve-receive game, which allowed Jones to set all available hitters in the first two games. The Maroons continued to get flustered and committed more service errors, and while Guilford’s offense purred like a finely tuned engine, Roanoke’s offense stalled out. The Quakers, playing like a group of seasoned veterans won game two 30-23, and took a (not so) commanding 2-0 lead. One more for victory…

Sensing that match was almost in hand, Guilford was ready to land the knock-out punch. Roanoke, realizing that Guilford wasn’t going to lay down, stepped up their game in the third, and decreased their errors, playing like a cohesive unit for the first time all night. Game three was a slug fest, with both teams participating in a war of attrition. As the game scores approached twenty, the teams remained close. Then it happened. A run by Guilford put the Quakers up 26-21. Four points to go! The girls had been playing absolutely steady volleyball, really limiting their mistakes, and capitalizing on almost all of Roanoke’s.

Oops.
We weren’t completely out of the woods yet. We still needed four points. Then it happened. Serve receive suffered its first hiccup of the night. Roanoke tied up the match. Try as they might, the Quakers were unable to find their lost momentum. After a few traded points, the Maroons grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat and won game three 31-29.

Up 2-1 in games, the Quakers returned to their "freshmen form" and got pounded 16-30 in the fourth game. Quakers 2, Maroons 2. The match would be decided in the fifth game.

Guilford was charged up entering the fifth game, racing out to an 8-3 lead at the change-over. The Quakers looked hungry for a victory. The Maroons looked tired. Seven points to go! Limit Roanoke’s runs; make small runs of your own, win the game. Simply execute the plan.

Victory was not to be. Guilford faltered again in serve receive, limiting its offensive options, and allowed Roanoake to get back into the game. The freshmen mistakes returned, and along with some missed serves, and some bad calls by the referee down the stretch, the Maroons were able to once again come from behind, winning the fifth game (15-17) and the match.

Guilford played great fro 80% of the match, and put up some great numbers to show for their efforts.

Becca Jones was able to lead a great offensive charge because of the superb (for the most part) passing. She tallied a double-double with 52 assists and led the defense with 15 digs. Emily Becher also recorded a double-double, notching 17 kills and 13 digs. Kaci Loeffler just missed a double-double, finishing with 10 kills and nine digs. Brittani Leathern led all Quaker attackers with a career-high tying 23 kills. Meagan Tucker once again recorded double-digit digs with 11 in a great defensive effort.

Frustrated by the loss, Guilford was happy with their level of play for most of the match, and looked to turn the loss into a positive at the Guilford College Invitational Tournament.

Needing to go at least 1-1 on the first day of the tournament to reach the semifinals, the Quakers had a mission to accomplish.

Their first opponent of the tournament was Piedmont College, who coming into the tournament was riding a six match winning streak. The streak, unfortunately for the Lions, was about to come to a quick end.

The Quakers jumped all over the Lions. Using the backing of the partisan crowd, the passing was to target, the sets were on line, and the hits were not returnable.

The Lions were dispatched 30-20, 30-24, and 30-22. Guilford was 1-0 and would face Christopher Newport University in their final match of the day.

CNU has become a perennial powerhouse throughout the region over the last couple of years. This year, they knocked off a very good Washington and Lee squad that was ranked #25 in the AVCA/head Coaches Division III poll. CNU therefore, was going to present a very tough challenge for Guilford.

The Quakers did not measure up to the full-strength of the Lady Captains starting line-up and fell disappointingly 14-30 in the first game.

The second and third games saw CNU put in line-up 1b, as Guilford countered with its best defensive line-up. This time the Quakers were able to put on a better show, and nearly upset CNU! Game two again went to the visitors 30-32. Guilford was now down 2-0.
The third game was again competitive, but a tiring Quakers squad went down quietly at the end, 24-30. However, at 1-1 for the day, Guilford had achieved its goal—get into the semifinal round of your own tournament. Mission Accomplished.

Becca Jones paced the offense with 31 assists. Becher and Leathern worked the CNU defense for 13 kills apiece. Defensively, Kaci Loeffler had 17 digs, while Becher collected 15 digs to complete her double-double effort.

A tired and banged up Quaker Volleyball Team took the floor Saturday, only needing to defeat Bridgewater College to reach the finals of their own tournament. Coming off of the effort from the day before, it would seem that Guilford would be up to the task. Unfortunately, the Quakers would be unable to rise to the challenge of the day. Not accustomed to back-to-back matches, much less on consecutive days, the Quakers could not sustain a high-level of play to match Bridgewater’s consistent play. With an ailing middle on the bench and an ailing setter giving her all, somehow the Quakers mustered enough play to make the last two games against the Eagles respectable. Guilford was downed 0-3 (12-30, 21-30, and 21-30).

After a team pow-wow and a couple hours to rest, Guilford again took the court in the third-place match against Maryville looking to finish the weekend 2-2.

Over the final two matches, Jones tallied 25 assists as Brown chipped in with 14. Emily Becher was again the team’s workhorse, collecting 22 kills and 19 digs (playing some awesome defense). The K/Cs—Loeffler and Lockhart—had 17 and 11 digs respectively, while Jenny Conner came up big with 13 digs of her own, and provided the team with some much needed comic relief.

So, what did we learn? We learned that we can play at high levels for longer periods of time than earlier in the season. We also learned that we need to step up to the challenge of two day tournaments with back to back matches. Most importantly, we are still headed in the right direction as a team, and still look like we might achieve our goal of making the conference tournament.

As always, more information, including complete match statistics can be found on the website.