Volleyball battles against top 10 programs

The women’s volleyball team spent the weekend in Springfield, Ohio, where it competed in the Wittenberg National Invitational.  The Jays opened their season facing difficult opponents, as all three of the teams they faced were ranked in the top 10 nationally.  Hopkins was defeated by fifth-ranked St. Thomas on Friday before dropping matches to seventh-ranked Wittenberg and fourth-ranked Hope on Saturday.

The Lady Jays opened up this weekend by dropping three straight sets to St. Thomas. Hopkins started strong, taking an early 9-6 lead.  After a series of attacking and ball handling errors, St. Thomas went on a 10-1 run, capitalizing on these mistakes and taking a 16-10 lead that the Jays would be unable to overcome.  After a Hopkins timeout, the two teams traded kills, bringing the score to 18-12.  Another stretch of Hopkins errors led to St. Thomas taking a commanding lead before finishing the set off with a score of 25-14.

The Jays were unable to ever get control of the second set as St. Thomas opened up with a dominating 8-2 run. The Tommies owned a .370 hitting percentage throughout the second set while defeating the Jays 25-12.  Hopkins put up a better fight in the third set, going point-for-point with St. Thomas to open up with a 6-6 tie.  Following a Jays attack error, St. Thomas jumped at the opportunity with a service ace, pushing the score to 8-6.  Rallying around that, they were able to secure a 25-14 set victory and ended up taking the match.  Junior outside hitter Ali Cox finished the match with six kills, while junior setter Carolyn Zin had 10 assists.

Zin, who leads the team with 26 assists this season, believes the team faced some of the “toughest competition in the country this weekend.”

“It was a fantastic learning experience for all of us, and we can’t wait to get back in the gym and eventually face these teams again in the future,” Zin said.

Also leading the way for the Blue Jays were freshman middle hitter Mereze Visagie, who sported a .333 hitting percentage with five kills, and sophomore right side hitter Ally Hirsch, who added four kills of her own.

On Saturday, Hopkins faced two more top 10 opponents. The first was against the home team Wittenberg.  The Jays struggled to get any type of offense going throughout the match with only 19 kills, while Wittenberg rallied a .247 hitting percentage.  The Tigers had three separate players tally six kills each, while Wittenberg junior setter Meghan Vodopich passed out 15 assists.

The Jays dropped all three sets with scores of 25-14, 25-16 and 25-11.  Freshman setter Kristi Rhead finished with a team-leading nine assists in the match while senior libero Anne Cohen had 12 digs as well as two service aces. Junior libero Stephanie Yokoyama finished with eight digs in the match.

The second match of the day looked better for the Hopkins offense but still was not enough to overcome Hope’s dominance.  Hope junior outside hitter Amy Vanderstoep set the tone for the Flying Dutchmen by finishing with 13 kills and an .812 hitting percentage, while teammate Lauren Hazekamp had 37 assists throughout the match.

Rhead and Zin posted  16 assists combined for Hopkins to go along with eight kills from Cox and another five from Hirsch.  Cohen and Zin combined for 27 digs in the match and freshman outside hitter Erica Johnston finished with two aces.

Despite a tough start to the season, the Lady Jays are ready to bounce back.

“In order to be successful in the rest of the season, we need to own our style of play: aggressive decision making, attacking the block on offense and serving tough consistently,” Cohen said. “We have an excellent team dynamic and culture so that we all are constantly giving and receiving technical feedback and embracing a mindset of growth and improvement, both individually and as a team, each time we step on the court and one day at a time.”

The Jays will look to start a winning streak as they host the Greg Giovanazzi Memorial Tournament at Goldfarb Gymnasium.  They will face Bridgewater (Va.) on Friday night before two Maryland foes in Stevenson and Goucher this weekend.