Blue Devil volleyball team hangs tough but falls short
Published 8:53 pm Wednesday, September 3, 2008
The Blue Devils volleyball team couldn’t maintain momentum in a four-game loss to Ridgewater by scores of 19-25, 25-17, 16-25, 21-25 in Riverland Gym Wednesday.
The Blue Devils led 17-16 in the fourth game, but a few costly errors down the stretch allowed Ridgewater to take over.
“I felt like there are some kinks and we errored are way out of the games that we lost. I like that because there’s things we can fix,” Riverland head coach Helen Jahr said. “Tonight I felt a different atmosphere against Ridgewater for the first time ever. I didn’t feel intimidated and I know the team didn’t either. They knew that they lost because they made mistakes, and that’s all right.”
The Blue Devils (4-1 overall, 0-1 MCAC) came out flat in the first game as they fell behind 12-5 early and never got closer than five the rest of the way. But they showed some spark in the second game when Glenville/Emmons grad Ashley Lau converted three straight serving aces to put Riverland up 9-3. Lau finished with 10 kills and 15 digs.
“Those aces were awesome for momentum,” Jahr said. “We’ve been working on those jump serves.”
The Blue Devils took a commanding 20-12 lead in game two on a kill by Tiffany Preuss of Waterville/Elysian Morristown. Pruess finished with 12 assists.
On the night, Riverland got most of its hitting from the outside as Lau and Kate Krogh — who had seven kills and 17 digs — led the attacks.
“I don’t think it was intentional to keep it away from a middles,” Jahr said. “I would’ve liked to see Brooke (Monson) and Kelly (Hendricks) hit more, but because of our passing we weren’t able to run it like we usually do and that made a difference.”
Krissy Schemmel had 15 digs and 11 assists for the Blue Devils, Ashleigh Smith had two aces, and Monson had three kills and two blocks.
Jordan Olerud had nine kills for Ridgewater.