The volleyball team lost its first two conference games this weekend, bringing their overall record to 6-8.
The team travelled to Romeoville, Illinois, Friday to face off against the No. 6 Lewis University Flyers, but were swept in three straight sets. The Bulldogs managed 28 kills throughout the match with opposite hitter Jocelynn Livingston and outside hitter Ellie Kaat leading at nine and eight kills, respectively, but they couldn’t catch up to the Flyer’s 45 kills.
The team also lost 0-3 Saturday when they traveled to Springfield, Illinois, to play against the University of Illinois-Springfield’s Prairie Stars. The Prairie Stars dominated all the sets, only allowing the ’Dogs seven, nine and 16 points in each set.
Head coach Ben Briney said the biggest things the Bulldogs need to work on are translating what they learn in practice into their matches, trusting the process and their technique.
“When our offense was on, our offense was going well, but just kind of like everything else, it wasn’t consistent enough,” Briney said.
Briney said another big problem was with failure recovery. He said the team often dwelled on their mistakes and that affected their play.
The team needed to make a push and fight hard, Briney said, but this weekend that didn’t happen.
“Now it’s about forgetting about that weekend, learning from it and getting back in the gym this week and getting ready for [this] weekend,” Briney said.
The volleyball team will play this Friday, Oct. 4 at home against the University of Indianapolis.