McHenry, MD – When the Lady Lakers left openings in their defense, the College of Southern Maryland knew how to find them.
That was one of the keys as CSM notched a 25-8, 25-13, and 25-7 women's volleyball win Sunday afternoon over host Garrett College. The unbeaten Hawks (8-0) successfully exploited the holes in GC's defense throughout the match.
"We're still just struggling on those short floaters and who gets what ball," acknowledged Lady Lakers head coach Brittany Jackson. "Whenever we sent a free ball over, they set up and ran a play. They played a solid offensive and defensive game."
Hawks Maria Pena (match-high seven kills) and Lillian Reynolds each placed off-speed hits into Lady Laker defensive holes during a 7-0 run that helped CSM build a 12-3 lead in the opening set. Consecutive aces by Emma Heinhorst highlighted a 7-1 Hawk run to stretch the lead to 19-6 as CSM pulled away.
CSM got off to a shaky second-set start as Pena sent two hits long and Reynolds netted a serve. Those errors, combined with an ace from Lady Laker Lily Fialkovic, allowed Garrett to build a 5-1 lead.
Southern Maryland battled back to a 6-6 tie before Sadie Portillo (team-high eight digs) delivered a cross-court hit that nicked the line to put GC back in front. The Hawks, however, answered with a 4-0 run that included two more dinks into an open middle – one each from Ellyssa Fultz and Reynolds (match-high 19 assists, three aces) – as CSM took the lead for good.
"They're always a solid, low-error team," Jackson said of CSM. "That's just where we need to make improvements."
Garrett twice tied the third set, the last time at 3-3 on a well-placed free ball by Alexia Wolf. The Hawks, however, answered with a 13-0 run that include three aces from Katrina Swanson (match-high six aces).
While the Lady Lakers fell to 0-2, Jackson said she saw significant improvement from the season-opening loss (25-7, 25-7, 25-11) at Allegany College of Maryland.
"We were tremendously improved from the first match," said Jackson. "We didn't look as nervous, we had more solid plays, and we definitely had better serve-receive than Thursday at ACM. We also worked better together."
Jackson said her squad needs to take better advantage of offensive opportunities.
"When we get a hit on the ball, we have to make it work for us. We had a lot of attempts – we just didn't have kills with them," said Jackson, whose squad finished with just seven kills compared to 28 by CSM.
The Lady Lakers play a Saturday tri-match at Anne Arundel Community College, facing host AACC at 1 p.m. and Hagerstown Community College at 3 p.m.
