Oct. 26, 2012
Tigers 3 – Highlanders 2
The UC Riverside women’s volleyball team started the match against the University of Pacific with a 2-0 set lead but fell late, losing 3-2 against the Tigers in a high-energy game. The Highlanders started great in the first set, completing on 63 percent (14-22) of their side outs. That was due in part of Ashley Cox’s ability to create kills. UCR won the first set 25-21.
The second set finished with the same result in a 25-21 shootout. At the half, Ashley Cox led the team in Kills with 12, Amanda Vialpando had five, Megan Reza with nine, Tyler Dorsey and Jasmine White accumulated two kills. The second half was a different story.
Pacific took over the third set winning 25-23 after UCR trailed 5-2. The fourth set deflated UCR. Pacific connected on 86% (13-15) of their side outs as compared to the Highlanders’ 50 percent (12-24). The 5th and final set was won by Pacific 15-11. UCR matched the Tigers point to point, tying the game 4-4. After that point, Pacific created more off of their attacks as the Highlanders were not able to create plays to win.
Coach Ron Larsen commented on his team’s effort, “Our expectations aren’t good enough to think that we can win these games because we lost a number of them already, we were still happy with how well we did on games 1 and 2 and weren’t really focused on this game here (Game 3)” In addition to that, he stated they must “play with composure” and how they “can have emotional ups but we can’t have any downs and must do a better job with swings with the right players at the right times.”
Emily Borges spoke on the team’s play saying, “It came down to the third and fourth game, we almost got too much of a high and got too excited which ended up pulling us down at the end.”
Oct. 27, 2012
Aggies 3 – Highlanders 0
Coming off of Friday’s loss vs Pacific in a 5 set match, the UC Riverside Women’s Volleyball teams played its second game of a back-to-back on Saturday vs UC Davis. UC Riverside looked to get their first win in conference play and to break out of their 11 game losing streak, however, the UC Davis Aggies swept the Highlanders 3-0.
The first set was close with UCR leading early 3-0 that was created by kills from Ashley Cox and Amanda Vialpando. UC Davis pulled away by finishing off their attacking opportunities while the Highlanders were playing with no sense of awareness and effort on the defensive end leaving open spots in the middle of the box leading to easy points for UC Davis. UC Davis took the first game 25-13.
The second game was the same story but with a different start. UC Davis capitalized by attacking early and gained a 3-0 advantage. UCR was plagued with nine errors while completing 41% of their side outs. In the third set, the Highlanders started off 8-7 but were not able to keep the lead as UC Davis pulled away 25-16 and winning the game 3-0 to complete the sweep.
Coach Ron Larsen on his team’s effort, “I thought that we were playing like we were going to play well, but they (UC Davis) made a couple of nice plays and we stopped playing… I don’t think the level of play changed from our end, we didn’t play at a level of play that we could compete with them tonight, we never sustained a high level of play. We’re definitely not as strong in our fundamentals as we need to be.”
Ashley Cox and Amanda Vialpando were the statistical leaders of the game. Amanda Vialpando had 15 kills and 4 digs and Ashley Cox had nine kills and eight digs. Amanda and Ashley commented on their efforts. Amanda stated, “The other team just performed better than us.” In terms of any adjustments needed, she added, “We all know what we need to do, we just need to come fighting and know what we got to do to execute to win.”
Teammate Ashley commented on the game, saying, “We need to keep building, I don’t think we need to change anything, our confidence needs to get higher.” With 8 games remaining in the season, the Highlanders are still looking for their first conference win and to break away from a string of 11 losses in a row.
