The Dominican University women's volleyball team dropped a pair of matches on day one of the Loras College Invitational, falling to the #25 Washington University-St. Louis Bears in four sets (25-15, 25-18, 22-25, 25-17) before getting topped by the St. Norbert College Green Knights in three sets (25-22, 25-14, 25-16). The Stars hit just .091 in the matches combined and tallied just eight service aces while committing 24 errors at the serving line.
"Today wasn't the outcome we wanted," said
Cameron Andrew, the Stars' second-year head coach. "We knew it was going to be a steep increase in competition and we struggled to maintain the execuation and intensity we needed to stay in those matches. While we did a good job of focusing on our game plans, we didn't do enough to control our side of the court."
In the loss to the top 25 Bears, the Stars managed 38 kills while hitting .086 while WashU's offense went for 45 kills and hitting at a .164 clip. Sophomore
Gabija Sinickaite led the Stars with eight kills on 26 swings while
Gillian Jones added seven and
Keely McCallum and
Summer Smith tallied six.
Defensively, the Stars posted six blocks at the net.
Olivia Magnussen got in on five of the blocks while
Sarah Lychock led four in double-figures with 17 digs.
In the nightcap, the Stars managed eight blocks to the Green Knights two but it was the Green Knight's offense that outhit the Stars, .206 to .097. Sinickaite again paced the offense with ten kills on 34 swings while Smith and
Lauren LaVigne led the back row effort with nine digs apiece.
The Stars, now 3-2 on the season, return to action at the Loras Invite on Saturday, taking on the Wartburg College Knights at 10:00 a.m. before closing out the tournament with the host Duhawks at 2:00 p.m.
"We have a great opportunity to fix things tomorrow," continued Andrew. "We have our work cut out for us but can take a big step forward as we play two very competitive programs."
