By Brandon Scott
Sports
HUNTSVILLE —
Eastern Michigan outplayed a frustrated Bearkats volleyball team on Saturday afternoon on the way to claiming first place at the Comfort Suites Sam Houston State Invitational at Johnson Coliseum.
The Eagles defeated the Bearkats in straight sets, then later topped Marist to finish the tournament undfeated. Sam Houston (2-2) also fell to Louisiana-Lafayette in the final match Saturday night, rallying to force five games, to place third.
Outside Hitters Rachel Iaquaniello and Paige Roback led the Eagles attack against Sam Houston in the 25-15, 32-30, 25-15 victory. Iaquaniello recorded a game-best 15 kills, while Roback contributed 12.
The Bearkats were out of rhythm from the beginning of match. Counter to the impressive way they opened the tournament, the Kats failed with mental errors and frustration.
“We knew what to expect coming into it and I feel like we weren’t as ready as we should be,” junior Carli Kolbe said. “We got inside ourselves a little bit, just needed to trust each other more.”
Kolbe led the way for SHSU with 10 kills, but also had a game-high 11 attack errors. Kaylee Hawkins had seven spikes and Kelli Stewart added five with just as many attack errors.
After winning the first set handily, Eastern Michigan was in for a fight in the second frame, in which neither team led by more than two points the entire way. The Kats battled back after trailing multiple times, but the Eagles responded to every rally.
SHSU had three opportunities to even the match at one set apiece, serving set point with 25-24, 26-25 and 29-28 leads. But the Eagles were better when they needed to be. After taking a 31-30 lead from a kill by Iaquaniello, the Kats folded their hand with a Kym Loving attack error.
Eastern Michigan had 46 assists as a team compared to SHSU’s 27. The Eagles also recorded 64 digs while the Kats had 39. Players and coaches alike believe this match came down to which team showed the most trust in critical moments.
“The second game was really emotional,” Iaquaniello said after the game. “I felt like our team really trusted each other a lot. We knew what we were supposed to do. We just kept fighting hard with everything we had.”
Eastern Michigan head coach Kim Berrington was especially pleased with the way her team played. The Eagles offense has struggled in the past, but that was not the case on Saturday.
“They were better than us today,” SHSU head coach Brenda Gray said. “I thought they executed in all phases of their game better than we did. Last night we were a little bit more in sync. Today we were not.”
Louisiana-Lafayette tops Kats in three
The Bearkats placed third after falling to Louisiana-Lafayette in a five-set thriller, the second year in a row the Kats and the Ragin’ Cajuns have ended the Comfort Suites tournament in a five-setter.
Down two sets to none, the Bearkats came roaring back to win the third and fourth sets and were up 12-7 in the fifth frame. But the Cajuns prevailed for a 27-25, 25-23, 21-25, 18-25, 16-14 victory.
Sam Houston’s Carli Kolbe and Kaylee Hawkins were selected to the all-tournament team.
Rachel Iaquaniello of champion EMU was the tournament MVP. Other members of the all-tournament squad were Ashley Mason (EMU), Grace Hill (Marist) and Lesley Mirarchi and Mandi Gavin (Louisiana-Lafayette).
