Volleyball returns from West Coast discontented

By Natalie Clericuzio     9/9/10 7:00pm

While the California sunshine may have brought temporary smiles to the volleyball team, it still left unsatisfied after a 1-2 performance in the Asics Classic that was hosted by Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. In Rice's first match against Pepperdine last Friday, the Owls lost the first set 25-20 and lost a hard-fought second set 25-22. The match ended quietly with a 25-15 loss by Rice in the third and final set and giving the Waves a 3-0 win.

Junior outside hitter Ashleigh McCord led the team with 15 kills while senior setter Meredith Schamun had 22 assists.

Head Coach Genny Volpe felt that the Owls were not playing their best in the beginning of the match and they dug themselves too big of a hole to recover.

---

---

"Against Pepperdine, we came out a little flat," Volpe said. "I think we were tight and we need to work on coming out a little bit looser and our passing was off. We struggled with that."

On Saturday, Rice fell to the University of Missouri and defeated Eastern Washington University. In its first match of the day, Rice played Missouri and lost the first two sets, 25-18 and 25-21, before taking a 24-21 lead in the final set. Rice gave up its lead and ended up losing the final set 27-25 and dropping the match 3-0. McCord led the team in kills with 18 and redshirt freshman setter Megan Murphy led the team with 19 assists.

In its later match, Rice rebounded against Eastern Washington. Rice swept the match in three sets: 25-20, 25-14 and 25-22.

Against the Eagles, several different players posted kills. McCord again led the team with 12 kills, and sophomore outside hitter Laurie McNamara and freshman outside hitter Mariah Riddlesprigger each added eight kills apiece, while Schamun had 29 assists. Senior libero Tracey Lam added 15 digs to complete the full-team effort.

Senior middle blocker Caroline Gill felt that the weekend had its ups and downs but noted that the team improved as the weekend went on.

"During the second half of the game against Missouri, we started finding Rice volleyball," Gill said. "We started playing together as a team and less like individuals against Eastern Washington."

The Owls left Malibu with a 3-3 overall record on the season.

Going into the LSU Tiger Classic this weekend, Volpe talked about the fact that defense and discipline would be the main focuses in practice to help get the girls ready for the hostile Louisiana State University crowd.

"The focus is on playing stronger defense and having a strong, good first touch," Volpe said. "Today we worked on defense and on Wednesday we worked on defense and passing. We are also actually putting a little pressure [on them] in practice so they can work it out so next time they feel that in the game, they feel more relaxed."

Volpe hopes that the more intense practices will help the ladies as the LSU Tiger classic should be a challenge for Rice. The Owls will face New Mexico State University, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and LSU in Baton Rouge, La.

LSU is currently ranked 21st in the nation in the Bison/AVCA Division I Coaches Poll and is the first ranked opponent Rice will face this season.

Even though wins are going to be hard to come by this weekend, Volpe hopes the girls take something important away from the LSU Tiger Classic as they prepare for the rest of the season and conference play.

"The goal is to reach our potential, to play our best and we really want an opportunity to beat a couple of these teams, if not all three, so we can get a lot of confidence and also establish ourselves against one of the best teams in the country," Volpe said.

---