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Volleyball Falls In Season Opener
Aug.31, 2001
LARAMIE, Wyo. - WYOMING at Golden Gate Classic (San Francisco, Calif.)
In their first match of the season at the Golden Gate Classic in San Francisco, the Wyoming Cowgirl Volleyball Team (0-1 overall) fell to the Cincinnati Bearcats (1-0 overall) in four games (23-30, 18-30, 30-26, 24-30). The match was also the first for UW with a new scoring format in place this season. The new format consisting of rally scoring on every serve, games one through four go up to 30 points and the final game going to 15 points. Each team must win by two points. The Bearcats were led by junior middle blocker Bonita Wise, who finished the night with 12 kills, 11 digs and hit .360. The Bearcats didn't overpower the Cowgirls, but did out block them eleven to seven and hit .189 to finish the match. Starting four freshman in their first match ever at Wyoming, the Cowgirls held their own throughout the match. They finished the night with 63 digs, 45 assists and seven service aces. Sophomore Melissa Robinett led the team with 13 kills and 13 digs, along with two block solos. Senior Rachel Lau finished the night with 11 kills and three block assists. The Cowgirls looked best in game three, where they finished with 18 kills and hit.239, and eventually took the game 30-26. "Of course, I'm never pleased with a loss and game two was not a good
effort mentally for us, but I feel like it was a good first time out, "
said head coach Susan Steadman. "We're adjusting to having three to four
freshman on the court at one time, a new scoring system and I think
those things took their toll during the match. The thing that is
encouraging to me was the points we lost weren't because we were
overpowered, unfortunately they were our own silly errors and in rally
scoring that can come back to haunt you."
"We did show some spark and played aggressively, with the exception of the second game, and I'm really excited about tomorrow night's match. I think the girls feel good about a lot of things, but we certainly have some fine tuning to do with our offense. I also didn't expect our blocking to be that great tonight, but quite honestly it was a nice surprise." They will close out the tournament tomorrow night in the consolation game against either Furman or San Francisco, at 6:00 p.m. Mountain Time. |
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