Rock volleyball kicked off the season with a 2-2 record after their first tournament of the year at Winston-Salem.
The girls won their first two matches after beating Lees-McRae College (3-0) and Chowan University (3-1) on Friday, followed by two losses on Saturday to University of Mount Olive (3-1) and to Winston-Salem University (3-0).
Junior Courtney Oberlander lead The Rock in digs the entire weekend with 100 through the four matches, with 14 of them coming against Lees-McRae.
Head Coach Laurie Lokash feels that the team was playing too much defense and not enough offense.
“Defensively, I thought we were very solid, but defense can only do so much if you don’t throw some offense in there,” Lokash said. “We were playing defensive defense.”
Leading the team in kills in the first game was junior Brooke Bostwick with eight, while junior Haley Defibaugh helped the team with 18 assists in their match sweep against Lees-McRae.
Later in the day The Rock would win their second match against Chowan. The girls would lose their first set (23,25), but then would go on to win the next three sets with Oberlander leading the defense with 41 digs in the entire match. Freshman Kaley Fucci lead the team in kills with 13 while teammate sophomore Kelsey Boyle was right behind her with 11. Freshman Zoe Rivet impressed in her first collegiate action, leading the team with 11 serving aces over the weekend.
Saturday would be a different story when the Green and White took on Mount Olive. Oberlander still lead the defense with 31 kills but it was not enough, as they would go on to lose the match (3-1). The offense was still very much alive because The Rock only lost each match by 5 points or less.
Lokash says it is hard to maintain the same level of intensity the team had on the first day.
“I don’t want to say people weren’t trying, I don’t want to confuse trying with intensity,” Lokash said. “The teams we played the second day were far more aggressive than the teams we played the first day and instead of us being aggressive back, we may have been too passive.”
The final match of the tournament came against Winston-Salem. The girls were eventually swept by the tournament hosts and lost a nail-biting final set (26,24). Oberlander still led the team in digs with 14 while Boyle racked up 13 kills in the match loss.
This weekend The Rock will travel to Amherst, NY for their next tournament when they square off against Daemen College (NY) and Roberts Wesleyan College on Friday, followed by Assumption College and College of Saint Rose on Saturday.
