Winter Park, Fla. (September 10, 2021) – Rollins took a pair of losses in their first home action of the season, losing 3-2 to Georgia College of the Peach Belt Conference and 3-0 to Anderson University of the South Atlantic Conference on the first day of the Rollins Invitational.
Game One
Georgia College 3, Rollins 2
- The Tars came out of the gates strong with an easy 25-15 win in the first set. Rollins collected 12 kills in the set, while their defense limited the Bobcats to four kills at a -.125%. Four different Tars ... Riley Spurlin, Emily Diaz, Candace Doxey, and Emma Begley ... recorded multiple kills. They also took advantage of seven attack errors from the Bobcats.
- The script was flipped in set two as the teams needed extra points before deciding a winner. Georgia College was able to come through late with a pair of kills from Sarah Mangan and Sarah Stewart to preserve the 26-24 win. The teams were evenly matched throughout, ith each school totaling 15 kills in the set. Candace Doxey had one of her top sets of the young season with four kills while Emma Begley tallied three kills and a block.
- Set three belonged to the Tar as well, with Rollins winning 25-19. For the second straight set, the frontline was incredibly effective with 15 kills, striking at a .289 clip. They also held the Bobcats to a .063 attack percentage. Spurlin added four more kills to her ledger, including the final point to seal the set.
- Rollins looked to be on there way to a fourth straight win by jumping out to an early lead in the fourth set. Seven of the Tars' first ten points came from offensive attacks as they once again established dominance at the net. Georgia College would not go away, doing just enough to stick around before rattling off seven of the last eight points of the set to snatch a 25-23 victory over Rollins.
- The final frame, staying true to the narrative, needed extra time before declaring a winner. The Bobcats went up 3-0 early but Rollins was able to fight back to 7-7. They then came back again to tie it up at 12, and then held a 14-13 lead, just one point from victory. Georgia was able to put together a kill and a service ace to retake the lead, before pulling out the win after two Rollins attack errors which made the final of 17-15.
- Spurlin (17), Doxey (12), and Begley (10) each tallied double digit kills. Rebecca Kuehn was once again phenomenal in setting her teammates up, fishing out 48 assists. Begley also record five blocks on defense.
Game Two
Anderson 3, Rollins 0
- The Anderson Trojans, who were victorious in the previous matchup of the day against West Georgia, carried their momentum into the matchup with Rollins. They were extremely efficient in the first set, tallying 17 kills at a .378 percentage to win 25-17. The Tars held a lead at 10-7, and were within one point at 17-16, before the Trojans attack scored eight of the last nine points to secure the 25-17 win. Rollins actually played pretty well at the net with 12 kills/.267%, but they were done in by some untimely attack errors.
- Set two was more of the same in that the match was tight throughout (four ties and four lead changes), but once again Anderson came through with the final four points to bag a 25-20 win.
- The third and final set of the evening ended in the Trojan;s favor 25-12.
- Lana Gerard was the Tars' top performer, scoring a team-high 13 kills to go with two service aces and nine digs. Anderson only had seven attack erros for the entire match.
The Tars will wrap up their first home stand of the year with a pair of games on Saturday. At noon, they will face West Georgia, followed by a matchup with Newberry at 5:00 pm.
