MORRISTOWN, TN – The Walters State volleyball team saw their six-game winning streak come to an end as they fell to 17th-ranked Wallace State-Hanceville 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-18) Thursday night at Z Buda Gymnasium.
"Wallace State is a great team but I'm not sure how we expect to win when we make so many errors," Lady Senators' head coach Megan Blaylock said after the match. "Our play was very inconsistent and we didn't make any of the correct adjustments at the right time. To play Wallace State is a tall order but a lot of it was on our end as we made a very large amount of errors."
The entire match was intense and that was on display right out of the gates in the first set. Wallace State looked to be primed to claim the match when they built a 21-16 lead but the Lady Senators rallied to later pull to within striking distance at 23-20. That was as close as they would get, however, as the Lady Lions closed things out to win game one, 25-22.
Walters State built an 8-5 lead with four kills in a row, highlighted by an emphatic smash by Lauren Mims. The Lady Lions responded later with five straight points but once again the home team responded by going to Mims who tied things up at 17-17 with a kill. Wallace State scored three points in succession to claim a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-20 tally.
In game three, neither team had any lead bigger than two points through the halfway mark. Mattie Davis and Alyssa Campbell teamed up for a block to tie the set as the two teams continued to battle. Wallace State scored three points in a row to force a Lady Senators timeout with the home team behind 21-18. That was part of a 7-0 outburst by the Lady Lions to close out game three at 25-18 to take the match.
Blaylock said her team's struggles playing from behind was an issue all night long. "We have had the problem all year that when we are down a couple of points, we have a very hard time of getting back into the flow of scoring or moving on when we make an error. We have struggled with that so that is something we are going to hone in on and work on next week."
The Lady Senators are now 17-7 on the season. The Walters State Invitational continues on Friday as the Lady Senators will face Andrew College (Ga.) at 5 p.m.
Rob Harvey
Walters State Community College
Sports Information Director
Cell: (423) 779-8880
Email: sportsinfo@ws.edu
Website: www.ws.edu/athletics