The Lady Lions volleyball team suffered defeat at the hands of the Sam Houston Bearkats’ offense, losing 25-16, 25-21 and 25-15, in a Southland Conference (SLC) match at the University Center on Oct. 23.
Head volleyball coach Julie Langford, though disappointed by the loss, recognized the improvements her players are making.
“I see some things that we are improving on,” said Langford. “I think we’re being smarter about hitting around the block. I think now we just have to be more aggressive in what we are doing. We are working angles a lot better from the outside as well as working different parts of the court from different positions, which is an improvement from what we had been doing.”
Langford had formulated an approach for the match, although it never came to fruition.
“We worked on getting our middles and outsides collectively connecting with the setter and being more aggressive all at the same time,” said Langford. “We’ve seen instances where the outsides seem to be connecting better and we’ve had the middles connecting better and we were hoping for all of that to happen today, and it didn’t.”
The Lady Lions hit -.047 for the match, dropping in the rankings to 10-17 overall and 1-9 in Southland Conference.
In addition to impressive performances by outside hitters freshman Cherish Krohn and sophomore Taylor Buckner, who each had five kills, junior right side Paige Dollison had a match high of five service aces, four of which were back to back. Defensively, Dollison led the way with nine digs.
“The fist two were kind of an accident, with hitting the tape,” said Dollison. “I was definitely thinking go back and be aggressive. I didn’t want to play it safe so I went for the ace, I knew we had a point spread to make up.”
Dollison also explained her concern for lack of communication on the court.
“We need more talk on the court. About what’s going on with the net, what the other team is running, so we can stay one step ahead,” said Dollison.
The Lady Lions will be hosted by McNeese State for a Southland Conference match on Nov. 8.