October 6, 2006 - Saint Peter's 3 Rider 0
October 6, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
College Volleyball
Saint Peter’s College 3 Rider University 0
LAWRENCEVILLE—The bad thing, it’s a conference loss. The good thing, you get to come right back and play again in 20 hours.
The Broncs lost a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference match against Saint Peter’s Friday night.
Rider (5-11, 3-4 MAAC) lost to the Peahens in three straight with Saint Peter’s (9-12, 3-4 MAAC) winning 30-23, 30-26, 30-26.
“We did not do the little things tonight,” said head coach Emily Ahlquist. “We need to step up our intensity and find the court when we are hitting and serving.”
With game one tied at 12, Saint Peter’s rallied out-scoring the Broncs 18-11 over the last half of the game.
“You can’t really battle back against good teams and Saint Peter’s is a good team,” Ahlquist added. “They take advantage of every mistake and the plays you do hit it in the right spot, they get their hands on those as well.”
In the second game, the Peahens jumped out to a 20-12 lead and withstood a late Bronc comeback.
“We can’t continue to get down early in games,” Ahlquist added. “You expend so much energy trying to come back and you get within one or two points only to see the other team pull away again. It is very difficult both mentally and physically to play like that and we’ve been doing that in the last several matches. They need to learn to get back on track faster and not give up five or seven points in a row.”
In the third game, Saint Peter’s jumped up 5-0 before Rider rallied to tie the game at nine. Saint Peter’s opened up an 18-12 lead before Rider brought the game to a two point deficit at 23-21. With the score 27-25, Saint Peter’s won the last three out of four points for the final score.
“Every team is going to make errors,” Ahlquist added. “The successful teams capitalize on your mistakes and Saint Peter’s did that tonight. Every mistake we made, they scored on and we didn’t take advantage when they made mistakes.”
For the Broncs, sophomore Lacey Johnson (Aurora, Colo./Grandview) had a ‘double-double’ with 12 kills and 11 digs with first-year player Shannon Bures (Shelton, Conn./Shelton) coming in with 26 assists and 11 digs. Fellow rookie Amy Jeary (Depew, N.Y./St. Mary’s) had 24 digs for the Broncs.
“We haven’t figured out why we come out flat and not communicating,” said Johnson. “It keeps happening, we are upset that it keeps happening and we are trying to figure it out. When we don’t work with each other, we dig ourselves a hole and it is very difficult to get out of it. You need everyone on the court to battle and fight back and I don’t think we did that tonight.”
“It’s a challenge to try to come back if you are down in a match,” said Bures. “But it is a very difficult way to play. Saint Peter’s kept pushing at us and we worked but not as hard as we could have and that’s what we have to correct. We can’t use all of our energy battling back from deficits. We push our way up, lose it and push our way up again. We need to use that effort to build a lead and expand it, not chase down the other team when they build a lead on us. We have to play more consistent.”
Also for Rider, junior Katrina Stehle (Greensburg, Pa./Hempfield) had 16 digs with fellow junior Nastasja Avramovic (Philadelphia, Pa./Northeast) adding 14 digs.
“I am looking forward to Saturday,” Johnson added. “We want to show everyone that we can play better and that we have some fight and some intensity.”
“I think we will play better tomorrow against Marist,” Ahlquist added. “We are improving but we are taking two steps forward and one back and we need to keep moving forward only.”
Rider hosts the Red Foxes of Marist on Saturday in a MAAC match.
Two schools of thought for the Broncs. Learn from the mistakes or have a short memory and go right back at it. Rider will have 20 hours to do both.
-RU-
