Women's volleyball loses in straight sets to St. Louis and Duquesne

09/29/09 - The University of Rhode Island's women's volleyball team gave it their all Friday night at Keaney Gymnasium, but the 21st-ranked St. Louis University Billikens were too much for the Rams, winning 25-8, 25-17 and 25-19.St. Louis took control early and never let up. A 9-point run in the middle of the first set ended all hopes of an early Rhode Island comeback.

"They were too much for us," Coach Bob Schneck said. "They didn't give us a chance to play our A-game."

Rhode Island was only able to hold a lead for 19 of the 119 points throughout the match.

The Rams turned it up in the second set by going toe-to-toe with St. Louis, but a 5-point run turned a 2-point deficit into a 7-point deficit.

"They weren't anything special," freshman Annie Nelson, who had a team-high 12 assists, said. "We just didn't bring everything we had tonight."

Mistakes and miscommunication doomed several Rhode Island rallies, including one in the second set where a tipped shot fell to the floor in the middle of all six Rams.

"The first couple of games we made too many unforced errors," Schneck said. "It didn't give us an opportunity to keep up with them."

Senior Caitlyn Welsh led a revived Rhode Island attack after the intermission. She had a team-high nine kills including four in the third set.

"The last several points of the third game, Caitlyn had the determination that she needed to have in the first two games," Schneck said. "She looked like she really, really wanted it at that point."

The Rams led at 13-12 of the third set but St. Louis senior and A-10 offensive player of the week Sammi McCloud, who had three of her game-high 16 kills to squelch yet another Rhode Island rally.

"We played some really good points throughout the game," Schneck said. "But there were also too many times that we didn't play well."

The Rams took on another fellow A-10 rival, Duquesne University Saturday. Going into intermission everything was going right for Rhode Island.

They had taken the first two sets and had led for all but 14 of the 93 points, and Welsh and Kayla Wilson were dominating the frontcourt. Then the tide abruptly shifted as the Rams yielded control to Duquesne after the break and lost a heartbreaker 25-22, 25-21, 21-25, 20-25 and 7-15.

The loss dropped Rhode Island to 5-8 and 0-2 in the Atlantic-10.

"I felt that we were total control during the first two games," Schneck said. "I never had a feeling that they would have an opportunity to come back and beat us. Not in a million years would I have guessed that."

The Rams stumbled out of the starting blocks, falling behind 6-7 early but thundered back to take a 16-10 lead en route to a first set victory. The trio of junior Kayla Newberg, sophomore Kayla Wilson, and senior Caitlyn Welsh combined for 11 of Rhode Island's 15 kills in the first set.

The second set was more of the same as Newberg, Wilson, and Welsh accounted for 11 more kills. Candice Kolkka led the Rams with 25 of her 38 assists coming before the break.

The Rams cruised to a 25-21 second set win, but then the wheels came off the bus.

The Rams led for only six points over the final three sets of play.

"We went to sleep for games three, four and five," said Schneck. "We stunk up the gym."

Rhode Island stayed with Duquesne during the early in the deciding fifth set as junior Lauren McIntosh's kill tied the score at seven a piece, but that would be the Rams last point of the match as the Dukes ended the game on an 8-0 run helped along by four Rhody attack errors.

"Unfortunately it takes more than two games to win a match," said Schneck.

"Everyone will lose to St. Louis, but this one hurts because we beat Duquesne twice last year."

Rhode Island next takes the court at George Washington on Friday and returns to Keaney Gym on October 9th against Xavier.