Sept. 12, 2009

Box Score

MOBILE, Ala. - After opening this weekend's Jaguar Classic at South Alabama with a win over Jackson State, the Nicholls State University women's volleyball team (3-7) was hoping to finish out the weekend in similar fashion against South Alabama and Southern Miss. However, a hard-fought loss to the Jaguars followed by a tough defeat at the hands of the Golden Eagles ended the Colonels' hopes of getting back to .500 this weekend.

"We have some mixed feelings about how we did today, right now," head coach Chris Laird said. "We were doing some really good things at the right times, but we were also playing a little inconsistently and making some crucial mistakes at crucial times. We played hard today against South Alabama, we were up in the match in all four sets but we couldn't close it. So, obviously, we had a problem with finishing games. The second match was kind of difficult for us. After that letdown in the first match it was a little tough to guage where we were emotionally. We still played well in a couple of sets, but one of those sets was really disappointing. I feel like we had some great efforts from everyone today, we just didn't have a good team effort. That will be our focus in practice this week."

The Colonels opened the day against the Jaguars in South Alabama's home gym. Nicholls got 11 kills from sophomore Rachel Yezak and 38 assists from senior setter Amy Whitehead. However, 12.5 South Alabama blocks and 51 Jaguar digs limited the Colnels to a .175 team hitting percetange (49-25-137).

Nicholls still managed to give the homestanding Jaguars plenty of trouble. The Colonels battled South Alabama through 12 ties in the first set and forced the opening frame into tiebreakers before falling 26-24 in the first.

After the Jaguars hit .341 (16-2-41) for a narrow 25-22 second set win, the Colonels got on the board in the third. Nicholls battled the Jaguars to a 29-27 third set win to keep the match alive. However, the Colonels came up just short in their bid to force a fifth set thanks to a 25-20 South Alabama win in the fourth.

The Colonels tried to avoid an 0-2 Saturday with a strong start against Southern Miss in their second session of the day. Once again, the Colonels found themselves in a dog fight early on as the first set saw ten tie scores and seven lead changes before Southern Miss pulled away for the 25-20 win.

The Golden Eagles then hit .421 (9-1-19) en route to a second-set 25-14 win before a 25-17 third-set win gave Southern Miss a 3-1 win and a 10-1 season record.

Nicholls will return to action on Friday when they head to Prairie View A&M for the Lady Panther Invitational. The Colonels will once again face off against South Alabama and Southern Miss in a field that also includes Arkansas-Pine Bluff and PVAMU.

The Colonels have just one weekend road trip left before they finally return home to open the Southland Conference season against in-state rival Southeastern Louisiana on Sept. 25. The match will be the Colonels first home contest since a Sept. 1 match against Southern Miss.