The Loyola University women’s volleyball team strived for retribution, of an earlier loss in the Millsaps Tournament on Sept. 5, when they faced Millsaps College on Tuesday, Sept. 29 in The Den.
But The Lady Majors defeated the Wolfpack in similar fashion, 3-2, for the second time this season.
The Wolfpack lost the first set 21-25, but showed promising resilience and defeated the Lady Majors in the second and third set with a score of 25-13.
The fourth set was more of a nail-biter, with several lead changes throughout the set; however, the Lady Majors won 29-27.
In the tie-breaking fifth set the Lady Majors got out to a lead and never lost it, defeating the Wolfpack 15-9.
Gina Gill, named Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Hitter of the Week, led the Wolfpack with 18 kills. Gill, psychology sophomore, also finished the night with 16 digs and two aces.
Rachael Roth, general studies business freshmen, added 11 kills and four aces.
Samantha Worsham, political freshmen who was named GCAC Setter of the Week for her performances against Belhaven College and the University of West Florida, assisted 41 Loyola points. Amanda Oldani, marketing sophomore, also had 17 digs in the loss.
During the match, the Wolfpack exchanged several points back and forth with Millsaps in the first game, but fought back to win the next two sets decisively.
According to Gill, the team regrouped together and focused on their goal of winning match.
“I think we pretty much all come together and we look at each other and realize that it’s time. Enough is enough … We need to settle down and just go,” she said.
Tommy Harold, head volleyball coach said he was happy with the way his team played in those two matches, but at times during the rest of the game, the team began to leave their style of offense.
“You got to do the things that make you successful in the first place. We had put together two games where we win 25-15 or so which are nice margins and you’ve got to do those things all the way through,” Harold said.
“We hit some points where we got a little flustered and went away from our system and our offense. We got to get better at that, and again trust what we’re doing,” he said.
According to Gill, Millsaps did the little things they needed to do to come out with the victory.
“They just made a couple more plays than we did and they blocked a couple more balls than us. I mean we let a lot of serves and they passed a lot of balls over the net,” Gill said.
“There is some little things we need to work on and we just need to stay within the system,” she said.
Harold said, “There’s always going to be a couple of those (mistakes), especially over a five set match. One or two of those isn’t going to be the end of the world,” he said.
“It’s going to happen but we would like to clean them up and define people’s roles. That will come with time though,” Harold said.
When asked about the second loss to Millsaps in the season, Worsham said she thought the previous loss to the team earlier in the year stuck in the back of their mind throughout the match.
“I think a lot of it is mental and we just didn’t have the focus to finish out the match,” she said.
Harold stated that nerves and pressure were two factors in the loss on Tuesday, but hopes that the Wolfpack can work through those factors.
According to Worsham, sometimes the team gets flustered and they hope they can regain focus but it doesn’t always turn out the way they would like it to.
“I try and step up because I touch every other ball so I fee like I need to keep my composure, focus, and always try to get everyone else on the team focused but sometimes it doesn’t always follow through like this,” she said.
The 7-6 Loyola Wolfpack will get back into conference play Friday Oct. 2, in The Den when they host the SUNO Lady Knights at 7 p.m.
The Wolfpack defeated SUNO earlier this season, 3-0, at The Castle.
Arthur Mitchell can be reached at [email protected]
