It was a lackluster night for the SF State volleyball team, suffering a 3-0 sweep at the hands of visiting Cal State Los Angeles in the penultimate home game of the season.
The Gators committed 23 team errors on a night in which the team already had difficulty scoring and were easily overtaken by the Golden Eagles, 25-14, 25-7, 25-22.
“I think we were taken back by the fact that they came out on fire and so we kind of freaked out about it,” team libero Sarah Kurfess said. “I think it was a mixture of that they came out ready to play and we didn’t exactly do that. We knew where they would hit and what blockers needed to be on them and we just didn’t execute that.”
That was the general consensus of the night: Individually and as a team, the Gators just weren’t ready.
“We didn’t have the confidence we needed, especially at the level we could and have played at,” Megan Johnson, outside hitter, said. “We could’ve beaten that team, but for one reason or another we didn’t and that’s the result of it.”
Johnson had six kills with five errors out of 18 total attacks, resulting in lowly .056 hitting percentage, but it was a night where the team average was an .053 percentage.
The Golden Eagles ruled the court almost immediately. The Gators opened in their usual fashion, scoring the first point of the night on a kill by Halimah Oswald, but the Golden Eagles quickly took over the scoreboard.
“We definitely weren’t ready,” said Robyn Hall, who lead the team with just seven kills for the night, and committed five errors over 20 total attacks. “I feel like, our assignments that we were given, we weren’t doing at all. LA’s a good team, too, they have a really fast offense and we were just too slow to come back,”
The team’s errors mostly came from hitting out of bounds, Hall said. She also added that the team’s passing wasn’t on, resulting in low scoring from the Gators.
For Johnson, it was all about the team’s attitude.
“We didn’t come out with the fierceness that we should have, and we can, and that’s the kind of thing you need when you playing a team like that. That’s a good team,” Johnson said. “They pushed us, we didn’t push back. It sucks because we’re getting near the end of the season and this is our court, you know?”
The team hosts CSU Dominguez Hills tomorrow night at 7 p.m. in the final home game of the 2011 season and will honor the team’s five senior players as part of Senior Night before the game.
“Tomorrow, huge game, not just because of our opponent, but because it’s our senior night,” Johnson said. “We need to do this for our seniors, we need to make it a good game for them,”
For teammate Hall, another senior, it’s just another reason to move past tonight’s loss.
“I’m excited to take this team tomorrow and just forget about tonight and focus on tomorrow,” Hall said. “I know we can come out strong tomorrow, especially for senior night… it’s just the icing on the cake.”
