Playing at the Cornell Invitational last weekend left the Bulls seeing red as its record breaking winning streak was halted this past weekend. The Bulls (10-5) fell hard from their pedestal on Friday as St. Johns (13-1) defeated them in three matches (21-30, 26-30, 18-30) to open the tournament.
"I am disappointed about this weekend, we wanted to compete better," said head coach Jim Lodes. "We wanted to play at a higher level. Disappointed is a feeling that we all have right now."
Although the Bulls lost in all three matches at the Invitational, the team did present a solid effort. Junior Lizaiha Garcia led the team with 12 digs and senior Nikki Morzenti contributed a game-high 11 kills. Senior Brandie Clark was prominent on the court providing 24 of the teams 28 assists.
The Bulls were able to out-block St. Johns with a total of seven team blocks to five. Sophomore Alyssa Fitchette provided much of this defensive power, contributing six of the team's blocks. Despite the Bulls' blocking capabilities, the offensive power produced by St. Johns overwhelmed them as four players contributed double-digit kills and two players provided more than 20 assists each for the Red Storm.
The Bulls entered the arena Saturday morning looking to get back to its winning ways. However, Binghamton (3-9) trumped its efforts and left victorious in a nail-biting five game match (28-30, 30-22, 28-30, 30-25, 12-15).
"Binghamton kept fighting, but I believe that this is a match we got to find a way to win," Lodes said. "The loss was due to our unforced errors, we were throwing points away, not taking care of business."
Senior Jenna Map?(c) was a key player on both the defense and the attack. She tallied a game-high 19 kills and 10 digs. Garcia was once again significant on the court providing 21 digs, almost half of the Bulls' total.
Sophomore transfer Claudia Neba also played well, notching 24 kills and 6 blocks throughout the first two matches of the Invitational.
"Claudia played very well all weekend, she hit amazing," Lodes said. "She played very composed, very aggressive, very efficient, she proved herself this weekend."
Brandie Clark led the Bulls with assists against Binghamton as well, tallying 47 of the Bulls' 57 assists.
In the afternoon the Bulls had salt rubbed into its wounds as Cornell (4-3) defeated them in a three game sweep.
Fitchette and Freshman Kelsey Lueders were noteworthy players on the court, each tallying six kills and three blocks apiece. Neba also chipped in with three blocks and nine kills against the Big Red.
"Alyssa and Kelsey are doing a great job, we need to get them the ball more," Lodes said. "Once we work on our first contact with the ball, we will involve them more and be a much better team. We have done that in the past and need to do it in the future."
Map?(c) provided much of the Bulls' offensive power against Cornell with 16 kills while Morzenti finished with 12 kills. Garcia completed 12 of the Bulls' 33 digs and attempted to keep them in the match.
"We had a lot of unforced errors, attack errors and our first touch on the ball could have been better both on serve receive and defense," Lodes said. "Our passing could have been better. We would do two thirds of a play right and then shoot ourselves in the foot and have an unforced error. It was frustrating for the team. We need to work on this, work on our ball handling quality, how we take care of the ball, whether it is serving aggressively and to the right person or passing the ball. Are we making good passing choices? Are we keeping the ball in play?"
Although a disappointing weekend, Lodes is optimistic and looks forward to this upcoming week.
"This weekend was good for us because we saw a lot of what we need to work on," Lodes said. "We have Niagara on Tuesday. We can't look past them, and then we are excited to play our MAC (Mid-American Conference) game on Friday. We are ready. Our schedule has us prepared."
The Bulls will travel to Niagara University this Tuesday, to compete in its last non-conference match at 7 p.m. and will return home on Friday for its first MAC match against Kent State.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
