By: Nathan Vaughan, News Staff
The volleyball team had its four-game winning streak snapped last weekend as it fell to George Mason University (GMU) Oct. 1 and James Madison University (JMU) Oct. 3.
“We killed ourselves in the [GMU] match, unforced errors,” said senior captain, setter and opposite hitter Britney Brown. “So many errors that destroyed that match for us because we had them and we came out so strong.”
Northeastern jumped ahead of George Mason 19-13, but the Patriots wouldn’t go down without a fight and got back within one before losing 25-21.
George Mason captured an early five point advantage in the second set, but the Huskies, spurred on by a great home crowd, tied it up at 13-13. However, the Patriots flexed their muscles and pushed ahead to take the set 25-20.
After the break, George Mason got out to an impressive 7-0 start and the Huskies went down 25-14 in the third set.
In the fourth set, the Patriots proved to be too strong for the Huskies as they rolled to a 25-14 victory to win the match 3-1.
Northeastern had no time to dwell on the loss as the Dukes came to Solomon Court for a Sunday match. Going into Sunday each team had only one loss in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play, both to George Mason.
The struggles of the last match seemed to follow the Huskies into Sunday. The match started with a 6-5 lead for JMU and they won the first set 25-20.
The second set was much closer than the first, and senior libero Jessica LaScola was able to put some of her serving problems behind her for a four point rally. The Huskies relied on LaScola’s serves in a 25-18 victory.
When the teams returned to the court, the Huskies were able to jump out ahead. However, the Dukes were able to reel them back in and even the set at 7-7 before taking a lead and winning 25-23.
Again facing elimination, the Huskies fought back to win the fourth set 25-21 and forced a fifth set.
In the decisive fifth set, JMU tallied four consecutive points after being down by two to win the set 16-14 and the match at 3-2.The loss drops the Huskies to 11-7 (2-2 CAA).
“We feel like the wheels came off a bit, and people didn’t respond well to pressure but we felt like we could bounce back [after George Mason],” head coach Ken Nichols said. “The next thing we know, we are finding ourselves in a real battle with a team that, in that first game, wanted it more than we did.”
Brown got her third triple double of the season, 12th of her career with 20 sets, 14 kills and 11 digs. Freshman middle hitter Nichole Kurz tallied a career high of 15 kills, hitting .483. Kurz was also involvedin six blocks.
Going into the weekend, LaScola was 39th in the nation in digs per set, but teams tried to avoid her this weekend and she dropped to 56th.
“Being 56th is encouraging me to dig every ball ever, and never let the ball hit the ground,” LaScola said. “It has also encouraged me to be a better leader on the court in the defensive end.”
The Huskies and the Hofstra Pride are the only CAA teams to have yet to play their travel partners. That will be rectified Saturday in Hempstead, N.Y., as Northeastern plays Hofstra at 1 p.m. This means that of the 12 teams in the CAA, each team matches up with another to play every year based on distance. Because Hofstra and NU are the closest to each other, they play an annual series every year to keep travel costs low.
“As travel partners we are naturally going to be rivals,” Nichols said. “It has become a blood match.”
