As the cold months roll into New England, people will gain so much pleasure walking into their homes and out of the cold air.
The Massachusetts volleyball team (11-11 overall, 4-8 Atlantic 10) certainly hopes that the cozy atmosphere of the Curry Hicks Cage will be a soothing touch, as it returns tonight from a harsh trip to the Midwest in which it went 0-2 and failed to win a single game.
Unfortunately for the Minutewomen, the Rhode Island Rams will be thundering into Amherst, looking to trample the home squad in their quest for the A-10 championship.
“I think Rhode Island has better firepower than we do offensively, and we need three hitters, maybe four, to have a good offensive match so we can win,” UMass Head Coach Bonnie Kenny said.
The Rams (13-9, 9-3 A-10) had a 10-match winning streak snapped on their trip to Ohio, falling 3-0 to Xavier and 3-1 to Dayton.
“URI got beat just as badly as we did,” Kenny said. “They went four with Dayton, but they got annihilated by Xavier. That’s probably the lowest point total Rhode Island’s had all year – they got beat 30-10 in the first game.”
In that match, Xavier hit an extraordinary .380, while URI hit a paltry .127. The Rams were spiked by reigning A-10 Player of the Year Sara Bachus, who dumped 17 kills on the visitors to go along with just three errors.
“I think they have to be a little bit down [after losing the two matches],” Kenny continued. “I’m sure they have to make adjustments, but hopefully they won’t have enough time to make a lot of adjustments before they come in here and play us Wednesday.”
Still, URI stands in third place in the A-10 and is led by a plethora of offensive forces. Five players for the Rams are averaging in excess of two kills per game, with senior Yolanda Bogacz and freshman Brooke Ecklund leading the way with their 3.27 and 2.88, respectively. Bogacz was the lone bright spot for the Rams this past weekend, as she posted 19 kills and a .441 hitting percentage against Dayton.
“We’re not going to beat URI unless we can contain Bogacz, Ecklund, and Mary Kate Reardon,” Kenny said.
As for the Minutewomen, they will likely need to find a consistent offensive attack in order to defeat their opposition. Inconsistency has plagued the Maroon and White attack all season, as it has fought to find several day-to-day contributors. Highlighting the attack in Ohio were senior Lauren Vander Veen and junior Clare Baxter. Vander Veen notched 19 kills in the two matches, while Baxter posted an impressive .500 hitting percentage by throwing down 11 kills in the loss to Dayton. Nonetheless, UMass posted two of its four worst hitting percentages of the season on the trip.
“We need to regroup, get our confidence back up. We need to work hard these next two practices,” Vander Veen said. “We should try different things with our offense because teams are expecting us to do the same things we’ve been doing, so we need to mix it up and work on it.”
Game time tonight is set for 7:00 p.m.
