After a layoff of over a week, the Dominican University women's volleyball team returned to action on Friday night at the Igini Sports Forum, falling in five sets (25-19, 25-21, 22-25, 25-27, 15-12) to the Edgewood College Eagles. The loss was the Stars first in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) play, dropping Dominican to 9-6 overall and 2-1 in league play.
"That was a really hard fought match," commented Cameron Andrew, the Stars' first-year head coach. "Have to give Edgewood credit for pulling out a though one. I was proud of how we adjusted after the first two sets and were able to take the next two. The fifth set stings because we struggled with our execution. We didn't make Edgewood earn that last set and gave away too many points. The only positive of that is that execution is something we can fix. The heart and intensity was there—you either have that or you don't and tomorrow is an opportunity to bring that same heart and intensity and improve on the execution."
Dominican hit just .099 in the losing effort, committing 29 attack errors and 13 service errors on the night. In the deciding fifth set, the Stars managed just four kills while committing four errors on 19 attack attempts and logged a pair of service errors. Across the net, the Eagles knocked down eight kills in the fifth set with just three attack errors.
Summer Smith led the offense with 13 kills on the night, converting at a .041 clip with 11 errors on 49 attacks.
Gabija Sinickaite added ten kills on 34 swings with seven errors.
Anastasia Labadessa managed 33 assists for the night.
Defensively,
Megan Parker collected a match-high 30 digs to lead a back row effort that saw both Labadessa and Smith finish off double-doubles with 13 and 15 digs respectively.
For the Eagles (6-11, 3-2), Sarah Pfeifer and Mackenzie Doherty led the way with 12 kills apiece as Edgewood hit .134 on the night with 55 kills to 30 errors on 186 total attacks.
Dominican has a quick turnaround, returning to action on Saturday with a tri-match featuring the Stars, Rockford University and St. Mary's College (IN) at the Igini Sports Forum. Dominican will battle Rockford in a conference match at noon before taking on the St. Mary's Belles at 5:00 p.m.
