The Lady Lions lost to Incarnate Word, putting their conference record at 0-2. Jonathan Rhodes/The Lion's Roar

The Lady Lions volleyball dropped their second home conference game in a row in their loss to Incarnate Word three sets to one. The Lady Lions are now 0-2 in the conference and 2-13 overall.

Head Coach Jim Smoot does not believe that his team lacks the ability to pick up momentum and win games but simply believes that the team needs to change its behavior.

“Our main problem is not our skill or abilities but our problem to process the information the coaches are giving out,” said Smoot. “That’s the reason we are not successful. We have all of the skill.”

Smoot was hoping to see the team build some chemistry in this game. The Lady Lions won the third set 25-20. However, in the fourth set, the Lady Lions had seven attack errors leading to a 25-18 loss.

“We were hoping to pick some momentum with a win here today,” said Smoot. “Right now, I’m not really thinking in terms of tournament. I’m trying to get this group to realize what it takes to be successful ‘cause right now if we can’t realize that we can’t win. As they say, the cart before the horse in that situation.”

The Lady Lions had a .145 attack percentage, which is their fourth highest of the season. Sophomore middle blocker Jodi Edo had a career high 10 kills.

Edo understands why the team was not able to pull out a victory.

“Our main problems had to be serve receive,” said Edo. “We broke down a lot from it in the second set and third set. One of our other main problems was serving. Our serving was very awful. There were a lot of balls that soared out of bounds and a lot of balls that went straight into the net. I think we overthought our serves a lot, so we have to key in and get to know our zones and serve the right way on the court.”

Edo believes that doing it in practice has been a lot easier so far than doing it in a game.

“We are working on our serving in practice, we are working on staying in our zones and not serving to their best passer on the team,” said Edo. “A lot of times, we are trying to get it done in practice, but it’s a lot harder in the games when it comes to the pressure that’s put on you, and that’s what causes us to lose our serves.”

Sophomore middle blocker Savannah Alcazar also had a career best performance with 14 kills. This was the second straight game that she has bested her previous career best.

Alcazar and her teammates do not focus too much on one loss and instead take their time making their adjustments for each game.

“Our coaches tell us, ‘Just forget it and move on,’ so we try our best to play like nothing happened,” said Alcazar. “I think we swung at the ball a lot more than we did in the previous game against Corpus Christi. So I think we were really aggressive, and we just need to stay back on defense and get more balls out.”

The Lady Lions will be on the road for the next three games against Abilene Christian University on Thursday and Sam Houston State University on Saturday. Edo believes the team will turn the season around in the right direction.

“We can turn it around,” said Edo. “We just have to key in and get involved more on the court and then we will win the games.”