Volleyball team continues to struggle

By Wes Shaw, staff writer
Posted on November 12, 2007

Four painstakingly close games and heartbreaking losses in three of them ended JMU volleyball’s regular season Saturday. The Dukes fell in their match with Northeastern three games to one, capping off their regular season with a 16-12 record.

Each game could have gone either way, as JMU lost the final three by a combined six points. After coming back from a 7-1 deficit to win the first game 30-28, Madison fell 32-34, 30-28 and 30-32 to lock up a 7-7 finish in the CAA and a fifth seed in the upcoming CAA tournament.

After their comeback in the first game, it looked as though momentum was going the Dukes’ way.

JMU used several runs to get back into the game after going down early, including an 8-2 stretch to get the score within two points. The

Dukes tied the score at 26 before outplaying the Huskies down the stretch and taking the first in the best-of-five sets.

The Dukes’ luck ended here, however, as they were unable to pull out a victory in any of the next three games.

“For some reason, we just played a little tighter tonight than we needed to.” JMU coach Disa Garner said. “I thought we did some really nice things, had a lot of opportunities to win the match, but we just didn’t play great together. We definitely have to fix that. We just didn’t make the key plays at the right time unfortunately.”

The second game was the exact opposite as the first for the Dukes, as they came out as hot in this game as they were cold in the first. They took an early 7-1 lead, but 14 JMU errors throughout the remainder of the game, compared to the Huskies’ eight, made a victory nearly impossible. NU took the set by a final of 34-32.

Two of JMU’s perennial top players, seniors Jena Pierson and Allyson Halls, had shaky games at best. The two players that the Dukes have grown accustomed to seeing the two at the top of their game each match, committed numerous errors, both mental and physical, and made it difficult for the Dukes to pull out a victory against the CAA’s No. 2 team.

“It’s pretty significant,” Garner said. “We need those two playing well with the group [in the CAA tournament.] That’s going to be very important.”

Pierson, the CAA’s all-time digs leader, added 22 more against Northeastern. Halls finished with a double-double notching 21 kills and 11 digs, but it was the glaring errors and mistakes that stood out. Halls had a team-high, 13 errors. Pierson had two service errors and more mental mistakes on top of that, going after balls headed out of bounds

And while Madison certainly wanted a win to end its regular season and gain momentum heading in the conference tournament, it realized how little the loss meant to the ultimate goal-winning the CAA tournament.

“Really, its nothing,” Garner said. “Its just record. It maybe affects our seed but it really doesn’t matter. The reality is that we’re in the [CAA] tournament. We’ll have to win three matches to win a championship.

The Dukes will begin their quest when the tournament opens Friday. JMU, seeded fifth, will face fourth seed William & Mary.

“We got to buckle down and make a decision: do we want to win it or not?” Garner said. “That will determine our mentality. And if we have that mentality, I think we’ve got as good a chance as anyone else.”