Final Stats 1 | Final Stats 2 COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Nicholls State University volleyball team faced a daunting task on Friday, opening the season at the 2012 Mizzou Tiger Invitational with a top-25 ranked team and an ACC stalwart, and fell in both matches in straight-sets to Michigan and Virginia Tech.
 
“We had a tough day today, but I liked the fight I saw out of the team against some of the better competition we're going to face all year,” head coach Patrick HIltz said. “Our lineups are still changing trying to find the best group and I think we're getting close to finding the right fit on the court.”
 
The Colonels will play their final two matches of the tournament on Saturday, beginning at 12:30 p.m. against Mizzou.
 
Game One: No. 23 Michigan 3, Nicholls 0
 
Nicholls had a tough opener, leading off the entire tournament with the No. 23-ranked Michigan Wolverines, and after putting up a good fight in the opening and final set eventually fell to the Big Ten team 3-0 (25-16, 25-10, 25-16).
 
Jennifer Brandt had nine kills for the Colonels, followed by Sarah Terry and Jessica Addicks with five each. Jeanne Logarbo picked up 14 digs, while Nancy Taylor chipped in 21 assists.
 
In the first set the Colonels came out the gate firing as they forced the Wolverines to four ties and five lead changes after the first 14 points. Even after falling behind and needing to call a timeout, the Colonels were able to stay within four points of Michigan, but with the score 14-11 Michigan outscored the Colonels 9-4 to take a 23-15 lead before winning the set 25-16. Terry had three of the Colonels' seven kills in the set, with Addicks adding two.
 
The beginning of the second set would not be as kind to the Colonels as they fell into a 0-6 hole, needing a timeout to regroup. The quick break seemed to help as the Colonels went on a 5-3 run to pull within four of Michigan at 9-5. The Nicholls run would be short-lived as Michigan scored six of the next seven points to take a 15-6 lead before another Colonel timeout. The Colonels scrapped to make a game of it, but only scored four more points in the set to go into the break down two sets with the 25-10 Michigan set win.
 
The final set saw the Colonels take their first lead since the game's opening, and they seemed to find their rhythm trading multiple salvos with the Wolverines in the set. Down by one at 7-6, Michigan went up 12-8 before Nicholls called a timeout. The short session worked as the Colonels scored the next three points in a row to pull within one again of the Wolverines 12-11. After that run, Michigan limited the Colonels to just five more points for the rest of the match to close out the game 25-16.
 
Game Two: Virginia Tech 3, Nicholls 0
 
In game two against the Hokies, Virginia Tech hit .313 as a team en route to a straight-set victory over the Colonels 14-25, 22-25, 18-25 Saturday afternoon.
 
Sarah Terry led the Colonels with seven kills and a .316 clip in the match, followed by Jennifer Brandt's five. Jeanne Logarbo had 11 digs and Nancy Taylor had 11 assists, while Jasmine Harris had two of Nicholls' three aces in the match.
 
Even with Virginia Tech's 45 kills, the Colonels had 12 blocks to the Hokies' four, with no errors to Virginia Tech's two.
 
The Colonels fell behind 13-5 after the first team timeout was called to halt the Virginia Tech rally in the first set. After three ties in the first six points, the Hokies began to pull away going on runs of four, five and four points again to go up big and cruise to the 25-14 set win. In the set the Hokies hit .314 as a team with 15 kills to just four errors, while holding Nicholls to six kills and four errors for a .057 average.
 
Virginia Tech rattled off the first four points of the second set before the Colonels were able to break it and get three of the next four. That string would work as the Colonels over the course of the next 11 points would force four ties to eventually tie the game 9-9. After three straight points for the Hokies to make the score 12-9, Nicholls won three of the next five points to pull within two of VT, 15-12. A 5-1 run by Virginia Tech put the Hokies up 20-13, however, the Colonels never gave up and fought back from the brink to force a timeout after Nicholls made the score 24-22 to nearly make up a seven-point deficit before Virginia Tech closed the door with a Kathryn Caine kill.
 
After scoring the their first three points of the set, Virginia Tech began to outslug the Colonels as they went on a 7-0 run to go up 10-3. The Hokie lead grew to 14-7 and 17-8 while Virginia Tech doubled the amount of total kills the Colonels had as the game started to get out of reach. Down 19-11, Nicholls got seven more points after a string of three straight to make the score 23-18, but a service error and Hokie kill on back-to-back plays ended the match with a 25-18 VT win.