Two different volleyball teams donned the Maroon and White this weekend at Curry Hicks Cage. On Saturday night, the Massachusetts volleyball team came to play, as it thoroughly dominated its conference foe. The previous night, however, the Minutewomen’s evil twin committed numerous hitting errors and bad decisions as UMass played its worst match of the season.
Luckily the mediocre performance didn’t prevent the Minutewomen from emerging victorious as they defeated Fordham 3-2. UMass struggled throughout the match, but buckled down in the fourth and fifth games to put the pesky Rams out to pasture.
“It was a very poorly played match on our part,” said Head Coach Bonnie Kenny. “I don’t think we’ve ever hit that badly in a match.”
UMass ended with a hitting percentage of .204 for the match, but only because of a well-played second game in which its percentage was an extremely high .432, and a final stretch in which the Minutewomen finally got their act together and started playing solid volleyball.
The Maroon and White also went with a revamped lineup due to personal tragedies affecting several team members. Freshmen Carol Mattos and Amanda Thomas both saw their first extended action of the season, and neither of them seemed to show any freshman jitters. Mattos finished the match with 13 kills and contributed 11 digs on defense, while Thomas filled in admirably at the setter position, ending the contest with 26 assists.
Kenny said that playing the two newcomers was definitely not in the team’s game plan, but she thought that they stepped up well in place of her more experienced players.
“I thought Carol came ready to play, and when you play hard, good things happen,” said Kenny. “Amanda did a good job coming off the bench [as well].”
After the Minutewomen got off to a rocky start in game one – hitting for an atrocious -.051 percentage in dropping the game 23-30 – they rebounded in game two to lock the match at one apiece. The Maroon and White held a slim 10-8 lead, but the home team went on several extended rallies to stake themselves to a 24-14 lead. The Rams never got closer than seven points for the rest of the game, and a Lymarie Llovet kill gave the home team a 30-22 win and deadlocked the two teams at one going into the break.
Coming out of the locker room the two teams battled in a tightly contested third game in which neither team could muster more than a two-point lead early on. UMass went up 25-19 after a Janeen DeMarte kill and appeared to be well on its way to taking a 2-1 lead. However, Fordham stuck around and even managed to take the lead at 29-30. After a Mattos kill to knot the teams up at thirty, an attempted kill by the Rams’ Roxanne Hill appeared to sail wide, but was ruled in bounds to give the visitors the lead and eventually the game, as Fordham went up two games to one.
UMass battled back in game four, picking apart the Fordham attack and forcing it into several errors as the Maroon and White again tied up the match with a 30-22 victory. Senior Lauren Vander Veen led the way in the fourth slate, slamming home seven kills for the Minutewomen. The fifth game had the same result, as the home squad took the lead and never relinquished it and DeMarte’s team-leading 17th kill put the exclamation point on another UMass victory.
“It really shouldn’t have been that close,” said Kenny. “I just give Fordham’s defense a lot of credit.”
Saturday night, however, the Minutewomen came to play as they swept through a young and inexperienced George Washington squad, 3-0. The Colonials, starting a lineup of three freshmen and three sophomores were clearly outmatched by the UMass lineup filled with three seniors, and were outplayed throughout the contest, as the Maroon and White won 30-23, 30-23, 30-22.
“It’s very, very hard to win in this conference with freshmen and sophomores,” said Kenny. “But they’ll be good. They’ll be better the next time we play them.”
The defending conference champion could never put together any semblance of an extended offensive attack, as the Minutewomen had the lead for the vast majority of the match. George Washington never took more than a two-point lead early in the first game, and the Minutewomen led from start to finish in games two and three.
DeMarte again led the way for the Minutewomen, slamming home 13 kills in the victory. Nitia Small added 11, and junior Clare Baxter came off the bench to chip in with 10 kills on the match. Jitka Stehnova was very efficient at the setter position, contributing 38 assists for the UMass offensive attack. Kenny was very pleased with her play, mentioning that she was much more effective in her set distribution.
After Friday night’s debacle Kenny was extremely happy in her team’s play, as the Minutewomen improved their record to 3-3 in conference play and 8-5 overall.
“I can’t remember the last time we were in control of a conference match from start to finish,” said Kenny.
The Minutewomen look to extend its winning streak to three matches today as they continue their Atlantic 10 season in Kingston, R.I. against the Rhode Island Rams. URI comes into the match with an 8-7 record overall, but the team is currently in first place in the Atlantic 10 at 5-1. The Rams have won eight of their last nine matches and five in a row, so the Maroon and White will have a tough task ahead in order to keep pace in conference play.
