Huskies volleyball suffers second loss to Wildcats
With second loss to Northern Michigan, Tech drops to .500 again
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HOUGHTON -- In the morning, Michigan Tech Huskies volleyball coach Cindy Pindral was very excited about the way her team had been playing of late. She was looking forward to getting a second shot at her team's biggest rival, the Northern Michigan Wildcats, on the Huskies' own court in the SDC Gym.
Several hours later, she carried a very different look on her face as Michigan Tech dropped a four-set match to the Wildcats, 25-20, 25-20, 26-28, and 25-20.
Pindral did not mince words after the match.
"Not our best," she said, "probably one of our least consistent performances of the season. It’s frustrating because we spend so much time preparing, and getting the team in a position to make plays and give ourselves opportunities, but (it) seems to be a between-the-ears problem against this team. Just frustrating that we feel like we have done everything we can to get them in a spot to be prepared, and then we don’t show up."
With the loss, the Huskies fell to 13-13 overall and 8-7 in GLIAC play.
"At this point, we should be firing on all cylinders," Pindral said. "Yes, we had a new player in, but frankly, Amara (Beaudoin) did everything possible. She had a monster of a game. So, it’s frustrating for our bread and butter, which is our serve and pass, and our first contact, to be objectively poor tonight. We weren’t really able to get in a rhythm. Then our sets were trapping our attackers a lot, so we weren’t able to get a lot of quality attacks."
The Huskies hit .189 in the first set, .282 in the second, and .226 in the fourth. The Huskies had less attacking errors than Northern Michigan (12-14 overall, 8-7 GLIAC) did at 21-19, but the Huskies hit .252 for the match, which was less than the Wildcats' .295.
To make matters worse, the Huskies' serve only generated two aces all match, while they served up 10 errors, giving the Wildcats points throughout the match. The Wildcats, on the other hand, had eight aces to their 10 errors.
One major bright spot for the Huskies, as Pindral pointed out, was the play of freshman outside hitter Amara Beaudoin. Seeing action for just the second time this season, she earned her first career kill in the first set to even things at 8-8 after the Huskies started out in a 4-0 hole. She racked up another nine over the course of the match, hitting .227 for the night, all while playing nearly the entire night on the right side.
"It’s awesome," said Pindral. "She’s absolutely earned that right to have a shot, and she proved it. So, I think we’re going to go with her again on Saturday. Good for her; one shining bright spot. I mean, we had a couple of bright spots, I suppose, if you look at the stats, but good for Amara for taking advantage of an opportunity."
Senior outside hitter Rachel Zurek picked up six of her team-high 17 kills in the opening set, but once the Wildcats broke a 14-14 stalemate, they never looked back en route to the set win.
In the second second, Zurek continued to play well, notching another five kills, but again, after the Huskies tied things up at 14-14, the Wildcats opened up as a lead of as many as four and never looked back.
Interestingly, Zurek's worst set was the Huskies' best. Beaudoin started making waves in the set with four kills, and the Huskies had leads throughout the set until the Wildcats pulled ahead late. It appeared that Michigan Tech fought their way back to even things at 24-24, but Northern Michigan challenged the call. Upon review, the call stood, and the Huskies were alive. They then fell behind 27-25, but another review proved that the Wildcats had, in fact, hit long, evening things again at 26-26. The Huskies then scored two points quickly, including a kill by junior middle blocker Paige Wagner to seal the set win.
The fourth and final set saw the Huskies jump out to early leads of 1-0 and 2-1, but from there they were chasing the Wildcats. They evened things at 7-7, 8-8, and 12-12, but could not pull even again after that. Northern Michigan jumped out to a four-point lead at 21-17, and then held off a last push by the Huskies to seal the victory with an ace by Sydney Bartels.
KC Fortune paced the Wildcats with 21 kills. She also had a match-high three aces. Kaylie McIntosh posted 17 kills.
Wagner finished with 13 kills for the Huskies, along with four blocks.
Up next
The Huskies have a couple of days to reset before facing Roosevelt Saturday to close out the regular season.
"We don’t have a choice but to reset," said Pindral. "It’s all on us. We’re very senior heavy. Our captains are upperclassmen for the most part. We have so many players on the team that have so much experience, and we need to rebound. We need to understand that we don’t have a choice but to show up every single day and perform and be competitive.
"Performing and executing is the thing at this time of year. There should be no more thinking involved. It’s just executing what you already know how to do, what we’ve been practicing for three and a half months, and even more before that, for the seniors, and all that stuff."
Opening serve is set for 3 p.m. at the SDC Gym.