AUBURN, Ala. – Jacksonville State volleyball dropped both of its matches on Saturday in the War Eagle Invitational. They were swept by Coppin State before falling in straight sets to Auburn.
Jax State (1-2) struggled in the opening interval of match one. Just seven kills to eight attack errors and four blocks by the Eagles (2-1) yielded a 25-18 opening set. Coppin State did not benefit off as many self-inflicted wounds in the second. The Gamecocks jumped out to an early lead thanks to good passing and accurate attacking, but a scoring spurt late in the interval paved the way for CSU's 25-20 victory. Unfortunately, the Red-and-White never found their footing in the third set, falling 25-16 to drop their first match of the year.
Clarke Adams had a team-high 11 kills on a .321 clip with seven digs and
Gracie Danziger added a match-best 13 digs.
Kathryn Smith logged her first career start and finished with 15 assists.
"We have to be a system team to be successful," head coach
Derek Schroeder said. "We have to get positive contacts on our side of the floor. Today, we had a lot of neutral contacts and a much-improved Coppin State team took advantage of all those situations.
"It was great to get a couple younger players out there and get them some game experience," Schroeder said. "
Ellie Garrett has been battling some injuries so I didn't want to play her two matches today and Kathryn went out and did her job.
Selin Sakiroglu tried to do her job and I'd say they both did okay. There were just far too many neutral contacts and not enough positive contacts helping us play with speed."
The Gamecocks rounded out action in the War Eagle Invitational with a Saturday night affair with the host Tigers (3-0). Auburn, a tall squad that returned virtually all of its production from a season ago, pulled away early in 25-12 and 25-11 set victories to start the match. Jax State matched their efforts in the third, hitting .324 with 15 kills, but came up just short in crunch time and fell 26-24.
"I'm a little disappointed with the way we started but very pleased with the way we pushed them," Schroeder said. "I've done a couple rebuilds before and the team never 100% buys into a new system after two weeks. We're going to get to the point to where we're putting three positive contacts together, over-and-over again, and it'll help us beat a team with attrition. We almost did that in set three.
"The difference in the third set was the way we served," Schroeder said. "We began passing better in the second, but finally started serving a lot better in the third set. That made it to where we weren't playing uphill the whole time. I'm happy with that, and hopefully we can build on it."
Adams led the way again with nine kills, six digs, an ace, and a block, hitting .533 in the process. Freshman
Hana Aiana shined as well, adding eight kills on 14 swings with one block. Danziger had a team-high nine digs and Garrett finished with 23 assists.
Schroeder also commended the performance of
Parker Phenicie, a sophomore defensive specialist who made her season debut on Saturday night. Consecutive aces served as a spark for Jax State midway through the third, forcing the Tigers to call timeout.
Jacksonville State heads to Chicago next weekend to take part in Chicago State's Windy City Classic. They will play Southeast Missouri State and the host Cougars on Friday, Sept. 1, before finishing up with a noon match versus UC Irvine the following day. The Gamecocks play in Southern Indiana's USI Invitational the weekend after before hosting Chattanooga in their home-opener on Tues., Sept. 12, at Pete Mathews Coliseum. Conference USA play will begin ten days later at home against Sam Houston.
"I have to do a better job in getting some buy-ins on exactly how I want the contacts to go," Schroeder added. "The girls have to be a little more disciplined in how they do it, but it's on me. I have to be the one to get that out of them. I've done it before and I'm up to the challenge."
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