Volleyball: VCU drops TU in CAA Tournament

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. - Two of the Tigers' 22 wins this year came against defending CAA Champion Virginia Commonwealth. Their third meeting came on Friday at Hofstra in the quarterfinals of the CAA Tournament, and for the second consecutive year, the Rams put an end to Towson's season. As Ana Luiza De Borja led with 22 kills, VCU fought its way to a 30-26, 28-30, 31-29, 30-26 win. "I think, to an extent, as well as we played this year, we always came back to the fact that we still are a bit young and I think that showed tonight a little bit," Towson head coach Paul Koncir said. "We were a little tentative, at times very conservative. They wanted to win, we wanted to win, but I think some of our youth showed through and we really didn't play all that well." The loss ended Towson's sixth consecutive 20-win season. "For a new coach coming in a week and a half before preseason starts and really coming in to make a tournament run, there was no rebuilding or getting used to each other or any of that," Koncir said. "To go 22-9 is as strong a season as they've had here. It's a couple of matches won and lost different from being one of the best seasons." The Tigers held just one lead in game one, and were at one point down 28-22 in game two. Towson spent the better part of the four-game match trailing the Rams, who hit .260, and over .300 in the first two frames. "I think we were always nervous because we were losing a lot, but we were always close," senior Christina Grempler said. "Even when we were winning, we were playing like we were losing." After dropping the opener, the Tigers went on an 8-0 run on the serve of freshman Claudia Schneider to win the game, 30-28, and even the match at one game each. "I think it was our wakeup call," Koncir said. "We went through the first game unsure and unsteady and pulling that out really woke us up. And it showed in the third game which was close all the way through and then in the fourth game we came out early and got ahead, but just didn't quite have it in us." After dropping a tight game three, Towson jumped to a 21-12 advantage in the fourth stanza. However, a 13-4 run knotted the game at 25. VCU scored five of the next six points to clinch a trip to the tournament semifinals. The Rams had four players finish with 10 or more kills and De Borja and All-CAA First-Team selection Ludmila Francescatto each had over 20. For Towson, sophomore Ally Perko had 17 kills and 11 digs, while another sophomore, Maddie Haseltine, added 13 and 12. Fellow classman Alison Essink chipped in with 16 digs and a pair of aces. On Thursday night, three Tigers were honored by the conference at the annual pre-tournament banquet. Grempler, who finished her collegiate career with nine kills and five blocks, was voted first-team all-conference. Junior Kim Snider, who is forgoing her final year of eligibility, earned second team honors and tallied 44 assists and 10 digs against the Rams. Freshman Alysha Fanning was named the CAA Rookie of the Year and made the All-Rookie Team. In her postseason debut, Fanning ended up with nine kills and six blocks in the losing effort. "Tonight is disappointing, certainly, and it's a letdown from the standard that we keep," Koncir said. "But all in all, I hope [the players] look back on the season as very successful for what we asked of ourselves."

Comments

Be the first to comment on this article!

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out