Marshall Volleyball faced a tough challenge against James Madison University (8-8) Saturday, Oct. 12, ultimately falling to the Dukes and dropping to 9-10 on the season.
Marshall lost after a competitive four sets: 21-25, 21-25, 25-21 and 13-25. This was Marshall’s second matchup of the weekend against JMU, losing to JMU in three sets Friday.
“I’m really proud of our bounce back and first ball contact,” head coach Ari Aganus said. “We had some adversity and, as a team, handled it really well. While our defense was better today, our offense struggled to put the ball away.”
Herd sophomore Sarah Wadsworth said the coaches scouted and prepared very well for the game while senior Brynn Brown said what the team’s game-plan and focus were for the match.
“Our game plan was mainly to just focus on defense and first ball execution,” Brown said. “We did not look to do anything that was necessarily new, just trying to clean up our game.”
Marshall’s defense improved during the match, their offense struggled to stay consistent, faltering after the first two sets with a .250 and .283 hitting percentage, respectively.
However, they couldn’t continue this, which allowed the Dukes to pull away in all but one of their sets.
“I think that we are just in a very inconsistent spot at the moment,” Brown said. “We have to find a way to be more consistent whether that’s our play or confidence in ourselves.”
Even though the team was unable to capture a win against the Dukes, there were bright spots for the Herd. In the third set, Marshall and JMU were locked in a battle at 15-15 until the Herd went on a dominant 3-0 run, which helped them steal the set.
“I think we can build up our confidence from this match. We saw the potential and what we are capable of in that third set,” Brown said.
Building up confidence and experience within the group is important for the Herd as they continue with conference play. Their next matches are at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, where they will play the 4-14 overall Warhawks.
“The intensity and competition is heightened in conference play,” Brown said. “The Sun Belt has some really great teams, and it’s an extremely tough conference. Our mindset going into every game is to just get one. Once we get that first win, it will just flip a switch.”
Marshall hopes to grow from this weekend’s matches against a solid conference opponent and look to get into a groove to propel them to conference success and beyond, Brown said.
“The goal is to start winning some games, make it into the conference tournament and find a way to win and peak at the right time to win the conference tournament,” Brown said.
Aganus said she is ready to go right back to work.
“We appreciate our fans so much and look forward to getting on the road next week and get right back at it,” Aganus said.
Tariq Montgomery can be contacted at [email protected].
