Valdosta, GA – The Spring Hill College (SHC) volleyball team finished up play at the Valdosta State University Fall Classic with a 3-1 loss against the University of South Carolina Aiken on Saturday morning. The Badgers lost the closely contested match by scores of 27-29, 25-14, 16-25, and 24-26.
"This was a really well played match," said Head Coach
Peggy Martin. "We just hurt ourselves with some costly errors at crucial times. We will learn from this experience, correct our mistakes and move forward."
The match was a closely contested affair throughout as both teams played well. Spring Hill kept things close throughout by continuing to play well in the back row and controlling the middle of the net. However, the young Badger squad committed a handful of errors at key times during the first and fourth sets that allowed USC Aiken to pull out the victory.
The Badger offense played even with the Pacers throughout the match connecting for a .209 attack percentage compared to Aiken's .208. Offensively freshman
Kassandra Fairly and sophomore
Bentley Odom hammered down 15 kills apiece, while sophomore
Allison Weimer connected for 13 kills to lead the Badger attack. Junior setter
Emmarose Neibert dished out 53 of the team's 56 assists to set up the Badger front line attack.
Defensively, the Badgers' overall effort was solid and kept things close throughout the match. Spring Hill out blocked the Pacers by a 17-5 margin.
Bentley Odom stuffed 6 Pacer attacks while
Allison Weimer and
Kassandra Fairly each tallied 3 blocks. Along the back row, junior Cassidy Sterrett and
Payton Gidney lead the dirty work with 31 and 21 digs respectively while
Randi De'Armitt and
Sarah Senft contributed 13 and 12.
"Our middles, Odom and Fairly, are doing an outstanding job at the net and are getting help from the outside from Weimer," continued Martin. "Our backrow defense is steady with Sterrett, De'Armitt and Gidney all digging and passing well. This was a great opening weekend for us to get a sense of where we are as a team and what we need to work on going forward to get better."
The Badgers (3-1, 0-0 SIAC) will next play at the University of West Florida (UWF) Invitational held in Pensacola, Fla. September 7
th and 8
th. Spring Hill will play the host and 13
th ranked Argonauts of UWF at 12:30 p.m. and then face Lee University at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, September 7
th.
