Junior Jenn Caylor reaches for the ball in a game against Western Michigan Nov. 7, 2009. (MICHAEL GRIGGS | The Miami Student)
Facing top programs like Memphis, Jacksonville State and Belmont is never easy, but the Miami University volleyball team showed they were no pushover on opening weekend, winning one of three matches in Nashville.
"I was very pleased with the way we played this weekend," Head Coach Carolyn Condit said. "All three opponents posed different threats to us, but I thought we did an okay job dealing with them."
The first match of the season for the RedHawks was Aug. 27 against Belmont, the tournament hosts. Miami stayed close in the first game, battling back and forth with the Bruins and taking a few early leads. With the score tied at 13 all, the Bruins went on a decisive 7-2 run that gave them control of the game, which they went on to win 25-18. Both teams had big runs of their own in the second game, but a 5-1 run by Belmont at the end of a close game pulled them ahead for good and they won 25-22. Miami jumped out to a big lead in game three, but couldn't hold on as the Bruins battled back to take the game 25-22 and the match 3-0.
The story for Miami in the first match was about hitting efficiency, as the Red and White hit .165 compared to Belmont's .309. The 'Hawks looked to change that against a tough Jacksonville State team Aug. 28. They did just that, hitting .232 in the three games against the Gamecocks, while holding them to just a measly .154.
Miami took control of the first set early on, as two kills each from juniors Colleen Loftus and Jenn Caylor gave the RedHawks a comfortable lead at 9-3. The Red and White didn't look back from there, as they went on to take game one 25-18 for their first game win of the 2010 campaign. Game two was more of a battle between both teams, but Miami came out on top with two late kills from Caylor and Michelle Mangia to put away the game 25-20. Game three saw the RedHawks battle back from a 20-17 deficit late to take the game 25-22 and finish off the sweep of the Gamecocks for their first match win of the season.
A wild match against Memphis came next for the RedHawks, as they looked to close out their opening weekend with a win and improve to 2-1. Despite a career-high 16-kill performance by junior Cassie Farrell, the RedHawks were topped by the Tigers in Condit's 1,000th match as a head coach by a score of 3-1 (24-26, 31-29, 20-25, 22-25). Condit (571-429) is now one of only 10 coaches to reach that mark while only coaching in Division I.
Although the RedHawks finished the weekend 1-2, they gained a lot of experience going forward.
"Our team can learn a lot from our experiences this weekend," said Farrell, who was named to the All-Tournament Team for her play during the weekend. "During the second match, our defense sparked the team and I think we will be able to look to them more and more as the season goes on. This weekend our opponents were able to expose some of our weaknesses, but our team also developed confidence in other areas of the game."
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