Entering today on a five-game losing streak, the Quinnipiac women’s volleyball team kept that streak alive after falling to the Sacred Heart Pioneers, 3-1. The Bobcats (0-6 overall, 0-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) continued to struggle with eliminating little mistakes, which allowed the Pioneers (4-1 overall, 0-0 Northeast Conference) to add another tally in the win column.
“The little things that we work on in practice…of being aggressive, serving to zones…that’s what happened in set 3 as opposed to other sets,” Quinnipiac head coach Kris Czaplinski said. “That’s something that we need to get back into practice and make sure that every single set we’re doing those things instead of just 1 out of 4.”
Back-and-forth scoring seemed to be the trend of the day, as each set was very close in score. However, little lapses of miscommunication, service and receiving errors, and out of rotation calls for the Bobcats gave the Pioneers the edge they needed to squeak by with wins in the first two sets (25-20, 25-23).
“Passing fell apart in that sequence, the setting fell apart, the hitters’ confidence wasn’t exactly there every single time,” Czaplinski said. “If you give a team 5-6 straight points, that will be the difference in the game, which I believe it was.”
The Bobcats kicked it into gear as they entered the third set. Improvements in blocking and coverage allowed them to command the lead for the majority of the game. Also, plentiful service errors from the Pioneers helped the Bobcats to a 25-19 set win.
“We were relentless,” Czaplinski said. “We were aggressive on every single ball. We were doing the little things that we work on in practice.”
This momentum carried over into the beginning of set 4, but errors once again plagued the Quinnipiac team. The Bobcats had 26 attack errors on the day, giving the Pioneers the opportunity to walk away with the 25-16 win in the final set.
However, there were silver linings. Outside hitter Morgan Sherwin led the team in kills once again, adding 13 more to her stat bar after today.
“We always knew that she was a very dynamic person, very athletic,” Czaplinski said. “You can put her anywhere in the front row…you can put her anywhere on the court and she’s going to thrive. Every single game she’s getting better and better, and more fluid on the outside.”
Other strengths on the Quinnipiac team included Kat Miller’s strong serving, as she collected five aces on the day. Setter Maria Pansari continued to do what she does best as well, adding 37 more assists to her resume.
“She’s got a good grasp of the game right now,” Czaplinski said about Pansari. “I’m just trying to make sure she’s calm and efficient going in there. After every single timeout today, she came in and had a great set and I believe we executed on every play coming out of a timeout.”
Although starting the season with six straight losses, Czaplinski continues to keep a positive outlook.
“In preconference, it’s all about getting the team better in certain areas,” he said. “Of course you want to win…but as a coach, you want to look for the positives and build on that into the next game.”
That next game will take place in New Haven, as Quinnipiac looks for its first win of the season against Yale University (2-0 overall, 0-0 Ivy League Conference) on Saturday, September 1 at 7 p.m.
