By Madeline Sattler, News Staff
With two losses over the weekend and only four regular season games remaining, the volleyball team is looking to get back to the basics of the game in hopes of finishing the season in strong fashion.
“We’re going to go back to some of the preseason mindsets and train really hard,” head coach Ken Nichols said. “It’s about reestablishing in their minds the commitment level that it takes.”
The Huskies headed into the weekend tied with Towson University for first place in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). On Sunday afternoon, the Huskies dropped straight sets to the Tigers (22-25, 21-25, 22-25), which they hadn’t done since losing to the reigning national champions of University of California-Los Angeles and University of Califonia-Santa Barbara on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1.
Northeastern got on the board first with a kill by junior outside hitter Kelly Bacon. But the Tigers took the lead after tying it up at four and never looked back.
Towson’s lead grew to 18-9, but Northeastern rallied back to pull within one at 22-23 thanks to a kill by junior outside hitter Janelle Tucker. A Northeastern blocking error and a kill by Tiger senior setter Marta Machos ultimately won the set for Towson.
“We need to remember that we need to take it from teams, they’re not just going to give it to us,” said senior middle hitter Nicole Bishop, who had five kills and six blocks Sunday afternoon.
The second set was close, but 16 Northeastern errors gave the Tigers the win. Towson got took an early lead thanks to two of them, and Northeastern quickly squandered away its early 5-4 lead.
The Tigers went on a six point run which included three attacking errors. Towson’s biggest lead of the set, 20-12, came after three straight Husky errors.
The Huskies clawed back, scoring nine of the next 12 points to pull within two. However, two errors in the final two points gave Towson the second set victory.
“The first two sets we were down a bunch and dug ourselves out without complete domination,” Nichols said.
Tucker had four of her six kills in the set and sophomore setter Jillian Briner had seven of her 17 assists in the second set.
In the final set, Northeastern jumped out to a 5-1 lead which included sophomore libero Natalia Skiba’s first kill of the season. Towson came right back with five straight points of their own.
The Huskies saw their biggest lead on the afternoon at 14-9. But the Tigers would not go down without a battle as they tied the set at 21.
“Towson played like Towson plays – super tough,” Nichols said. “But we know we can play at that level, we just have to get to a place mentally where we do it from the beginning to the end.”
Three late Husky attacking errors helped the Tigers seal the match and remain undefeated in the CAA (8-0).
Bacon was the Huskies’ offensive leader on the afternoon with 13 kills while Skiba scooped up 15 digs. The 24 errors were the difference for the Huskies.
The loss to Towson came on the heels of a five-set marathon loss on Friday night’s marathon loss to the University of Delaware (28-26, 19-25, 25-20, 17-25, 10-15). The Blue Hens now own a 9-3 lifetime conference record over the Huskies.
The five-set match was the first for Northeastern since their season-opening 3-2 win over the University of Alabama on Aug. 24.
“These were two tough road losses,” Nichols said.
Again errors were costly for the Huskies as they had 35 attacking errors in the game.
“By no means do I think we let them have [the win],” Bishop said. “We just need to work on our unforced errors and focusing on game plan and really just playing our best game.”
Bacon led the offense with 20 kills after not breaking double digits in the two previous matches (Oct. 7 and Oct. 13). Briner and junior middle hitter Nichole Kurz contributed 13 kills apiece while junior setter Ina Kamenova had 35 assists.
Skiba had a season-high 31 digs to anchor the defense. Tucker and Bacon had 17 and 18 digs respectively.
The two weekend losses bumped Northeastern back to a tie for second place in the CAA. With only four matches left in the season, the Huskies will look to reduce errors and get back to their winning ways.
“We know how to play volleyball, but sometimes you just need to brush up on fundamentals and remember that it’s that easy to beat a team,” Bishop said. “We are that talented and we are that good.”
The Huskies will take on Georgia State University in the final regular season home game at Solomon Court on Sunday at 1 p.m. Northeastern’s two seniors, Bishop and outside hitter Jasmine Marta, will be honored before the game.
