WINTER PARK, Fla. -
Senior outside hitter Nikki Hartman tied a
career-high with 27 kills, but it wasn't enough as the Rollins Tars
volleyball fell to the Valdosta State Blazers, 3-2 (23-25, 26-24,
11-25, 25-19, 15-10) at the RollinsSportsStore.com Crossover,
Saturday evening at Warden Arena.
Valdosta State (11-8) got its revenge after losing its season
opener to Rollins (14-10) at the West Georgia Classic, 3-1 back in
August.
Hartman's 27 kills was a match-high and the Deltona, Fla., native
finished with a .306 attacking percentage. Fellow outside hitter
Mikayla
Pierce added a gutsy performance leading the team with a .378
hitting mark and 17 kills. The outsides for Rollins have accounted
for over half of the team's total kills as Hartman leads the team
with 338 with Pierce trails with 253.
Sophomore libero Phoebe Corder chipped in
with a match-best 20 digs to increase her season numbers to 269,
averaging nearly four per set. Pierce added 10 kills to record her
fifth double-double in 2009.
Rollins, the conference leader in blocks, registered just five
blocks as Jill
Lau, Jenny Sherwood and Natalie
Branche each recorded a solo block and assisted on another.
Branche continues to lead the conference with 91 total blocks.
Rollins came out firing in the first set as Hartman paced the
attacking effort with seven kills. Irene Hannan, Valdosta State's
outside hitter, countered with six, but the three extra attacking
errors from the Blazers proved to be the difference as the Tars
capture the first set, 25-23.
In the second set, the Tars appeared to be in control as they
out-hit Valdosta State, .257-.131. Hartman added another eight
kills, but Rollins failed to capitalize on the nine Blazer
attacking errors. The Tars trailed early at 10-5 but muscled their
way back into the match after going on a 5-0 run, which saw a pair
of Hartman kills and a Sherwood overpass kill.
Tied at 15, the teams remained within one point of each other until
an Arielle Parnell kill for Valdosta State gave the Blazers set
point, which the capitalized on during the next play on a Ruthie
King kill.
The third set was dominated by Rollins as they cruised to the 25-11
victory. The Tars hit .600 and tallied three blocks to ease to the
win. Rollins closed out the frame on an 11-0 run after holding a
14-11 advantage.
The fourth and fifth set belonged to the Blazers as they out-hit
the Tars for the first time in the final two stanzas. In the
decisive fifth set, Rollins was able to cut the Blazer lead to one
on two occasions, but at 9-8, the Blazers scored six out of the
next eight points to secure the win.
Hannan led the Blazers with 20 kills and Katie Onushko chipped in
with a double-digit effort of 13. Emelia Saulter was the
match-high in assists with 47. Defensively, four players
contributed double-digit efforts in digs as the Blazers finished
with nine total blocks, which marks the third time this season
Rollins was out-blocked by an opponent.
The Tars resume action at the RollinsSportsStore.com Crossover when
they compete against Harding, Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
