Volleyball drop pair of matches vs. Davidson as hunt for first conference win continues

The University of Rhode Island’s women’s volleyball team lost in a 3-0 sweep on Saturday night to Davidson College, but earned a set victory in their 3-1 defeat to that same opponent on Sunday afternoon.

This puts the Rams at 0-7 in the A-10 conference and 3-16 overall.

In their first matchup with the 12-5 Wildcats, URI’s defense was unable to contain their opponent’s offense, notching 53 kills. By comparison, the Rams tallied 30 kills, eight of those coming from fifth-year student Gabrielle Shilling.

The first set, which had the Wildcats come out on top 27-25, was a back-and-forth battle that ultimately ended on a URI attack error and serving ace by Davidson fourth-year Sola Omonije. The Rams garnered 16 of their 30 kills in the first set.

The second set’s first 20 points included nine ties that resulted in a 10-10 score, before Davidson went on to score four sequential points and take a 14-10 lead.

Davidson’s turning point in the second set happened when the Rams came within two points of Davidson’s lead at 18-16. Following these two URI points, both off of Davidson errors, the Wildcats would go on to score seven consecutive points to claim the set win, 25-16.

With momentum tilting in Davidson’s favor, the Rams were unable to gain much offensive traction in the third set, scoring just 12 points.

Sunday afternoon’s contest saw the Rams come out with a clean slate, according to head coach Angel Agu.

“ It’s easy to come in after a match like yesterday’s and have our heads down, but we didn’t,” Agu said. “There was attentiveness, you know, we watched film of yesterday’s match and took notes of what we had to do better and I thought we played better. ”

Setting the tone for the first set, the Wildcats and Rams combined for six kills in the match’s first six points, putting the score at 4-2 in favor of Davidson. The Rams found themselves trailing by five points for the middle stretch of the first set, with kills by second-year Aerin Bowman and third-year Samantha Blahut only temporarily reducing the deficit.

Despite back-to-back blocks by Shilling and redshirt second-year Emma Vente to cut the Wildcats’ lead to 17-15, the Rams earned only two of the match’s next nine points, putting the score at 24-17.

On the brink of losing their first set, the Rams battled back to tie the tally at 24-24. The Wildcats ended up claiming the first set victory with their own pair of kills by third-year Isabel Decker and second-year Anna Withee, winning 26-24.

The second set saw the Rams turn a corner, breaking through the defense of Davidson’s fourth-year and two-time A-10 conference libero, Bella Brady, who committed the first error of the set to put the Rams up 2-0. The Rams did not allow Davidson to lead the set at any point in their convincing 25-21 win.

“W e really had to just go back to what our game plan was,” Agu said. “I think once we start to feel a little bit of adversity, we start doing things that we don’t usually do in the practice gym and what our scout was. So that was just a reminder of, ‘Hey, let’s go back to square one and focus on what we need to focus on,’ and that was really establishing our middles, transition, and hitting our shots. ”

While the third set was more evenly-matched, midway through saw the Wildcats gain a slight advantage on the Rams, turning URI’s 10-8 lead into a 12-10 Wildcats score. This came off of a kill by Decker, an error from URI and two aces by Omonije.

Maintaining their lead the rest of the set, the Wildcats took the 2-1 set lead by a third set score of 25-19.

The fourth set was all Davidson, jumping out to a 5-0 lead and prompting a Rams timeout. Their dominance continued throughout the entirety of the set, allowing the Rams to only get within a four point differential.

The Rams, who lost their final set 25-13, fell victim to errors and fatigue towards the end of the match, something that Gabrielle Shilling claims they will continue to work on preventing.

“ I think [we just need to] always remind each individual that they’re supported and to still take courageous swings, to still take rips, to still be confident in their abilities, and to not dial back and become timid because that’s when the errors happen,” Shilling said.

Head coach Agu reiterated that the Rams will grow from these mistakes.

“ I think at the end there were just our errors and we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit,” Agu said. “That’s something we are going to continue to work on, is how we can minimize those errors. [Davidson] has great defenders, physical attackers, and blockers, so it’s just another opportunity to learn and continue to get better. ”

With the goal to earn their first conference win still on the horizon in what she refers to as a “dry spell,” Shilling and her team are prepared to put in the work.

“ Yeah, still a lot more to improve upon,” Shilling said. “I think that we’re going to take the time to reflect, come back into Tuesday and attack practice, but we know we have the capabilities. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just fine tuning some things here and there. ”

Next up, the Rams will take on another set of weekend matches at home against VCU. The first of the contests is Saturday at 6 p.m.