2008 Woodie Awards
Volleyball falls to PSAC leader California
By Haley Gaidosh
Rocket Contributor
Issue date: 11/2/07 Section: Sports
Even after the Rock volleyball team's 3-0 loss to California University of Pennsylvania on Tuesday, the Rock's hope for a regional playoff berth still remains.
With the loss to Cal, the Rock stands at 2-7 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West, ahead of only Indiana University of Pennsylvania in the standings.
The Rock will close out its regular season at home against IUP on Saturday at 3 p.m.
Rock Head Coach Laurie Lokash said that to defeat a team like California (9-0, 28-3), which has clinched the PSAC West title, her team would had to have played nearly perfectly.
"Cal is an extremely aggressive team, and they are the strongest in the region because they are the most physical and aggressive," Lokash said. "If we wanted to win against Cal, we had to play a lot better than what we did, and we had to eliminate the easy mistakes we made."
Senior Louise Schultz led the Rock effort with ten kills, 17 assists, and nine digs. Schultz said that it is hard to go against Cal because of the amount of confidence with which the Vulcans are playing.
"We just played flat and (like we were) not excited to play," Schultz said. "They are a great hitting and blocking team, and we had trouble hitting against such big blocks because we don't have that in practice."
Playing an undefeated team posed other problems to the Rock effort, said junior Anastasia Urbanik, who added eight kills and six digs.
"We all played timid and flat," Urbanik said. "They were beatable, but we just didn't bring it together like we needed to when facing an undefeated, top-ranked team. You can't get away with many mistakes if you want to win against a team like that."
A victory against the Vulcans would have given the Rock a great shot at a regional berth simply because no one in the conference has beaten Cal.
Lokash said there is a lot of confusion right now with the decision of who will be going to regionals.
"It is a giant mess right now," Lokash said. "It is going to come down to numbers and rankings, and in the end, teams of equal caliber will get left out."
In the last showdown between the Rock and IUP, SRU came out on top, winning in three games. But the Rock won't be taking IUP lightly on Saturday, Urbanik said.
"IUP is a good team and we need and want to beat them," Urbanik said. "They are playing a lot better right now, so we can't let up at all."
Potentially, Saturday could be the last game for the Rock volleyball team, a fact that Schultz said she and her team uses as motivation to come out with a victory.
"We want to continue the tradition of going to regionals, and our motivation right now is just that," Schultz said. "We need to focus on our own jobs and being very aggressive on Saturday."
With the loss to Cal, the Rock stands at 2-7 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West, ahead of only Indiana University of Pennsylvania in the standings.
The Rock will close out its regular season at home against IUP on Saturday at 3 p.m.
Rock Head Coach Laurie Lokash said that to defeat a team like California (9-0, 28-3), which has clinched the PSAC West title, her team would had to have played nearly perfectly.
"Cal is an extremely aggressive team, and they are the strongest in the region because they are the most physical and aggressive," Lokash said. "If we wanted to win against Cal, we had to play a lot better than what we did, and we had to eliminate the easy mistakes we made."
Senior Louise Schultz led the Rock effort with ten kills, 17 assists, and nine digs. Schultz said that it is hard to go against Cal because of the amount of confidence with which the Vulcans are playing.
"We just played flat and (like we were) not excited to play," Schultz said. "They are a great hitting and blocking team, and we had trouble hitting against such big blocks because we don't have that in practice."
Playing an undefeated team posed other problems to the Rock effort, said junior Anastasia Urbanik, who added eight kills and six digs.
"We all played timid and flat," Urbanik said. "They were beatable, but we just didn't bring it together like we needed to when facing an undefeated, top-ranked team. You can't get away with many mistakes if you want to win against a team like that."
A victory against the Vulcans would have given the Rock a great shot at a regional berth simply because no one in the conference has beaten Cal.
Lokash said there is a lot of confusion right now with the decision of who will be going to regionals.
"It is a giant mess right now," Lokash said. "It is going to come down to numbers and rankings, and in the end, teams of equal caliber will get left out."
In the last showdown between the Rock and IUP, SRU came out on top, winning in three games. But the Rock won't be taking IUP lightly on Saturday, Urbanik said.
"IUP is a good team and we need and want to beat them," Urbanik said. "They are playing a lot better right now, so we can't let up at all."
Potentially, Saturday could be the last game for the Rock volleyball team, a fact that Schultz said she and her team uses as motivation to come out with a victory.
"We want to continue the tradition of going to regionals, and our motivation right now is just that," Schultz said. "We need to focus on our own jobs and being very aggressive on Saturday."
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