The Chico State volleyball team ended Saturday night’s game in the same manner as Friday’s home opener against Cal Poly Pomona, by losing in three sets, this time to California State University San Bernardino.
Chico State came in with a 7-1 record tied for first in the CCAA North Division before losing on Friday by 21-25, 20-25, and 12-25. On Saturday, the Wildcats lost in three sets again by 21-25, 21-25, and 11-25. Extending their streak of 6 straight set losses, and dropping them to 7-3 on the season.
The Wildcats showed flashes of great team play and individual statistical achievement. Junior Bekah Boyle had 12 kills and Freshman Kennedy Rice had eight of her own. Not to mention Nicole Desrochers team leading 25 assists.
When asked what they can take away from these two home losses, Saturday’s digs leader with 8, Defensive Specialist/Libero Brooke Fogel said, “We played a lot harder tonight. We put up a much better fight tonight. They beat us in a few things physically but I thought we played resilient. Coming out of this we know what we can work on this week in practice. We have two more matches next weekend. We have a lot to work on. But we are just going to get better from here.”
A few major problems came down to errors and attacking percentages. The Wildcats had 25 errors as a team against the Coyotes 9. Their attacking percentage as a whole was .086 versus the the Coyotes crisp .349.
Coach Cody Hein, now in his 16th year at Chico State, felt his team was out passed all game. “To me the big thing was our passing and our blocking.” Hein said. “Both those things broke down and both teams we played this weekend took advantage of that. They were both big and physical teams and took advantage of that.”
The difference in blocking showed up on the stat sheet where the Wildcats only had four block assists and zero block solos. Meanwhile, the coyotes had 14 block assists and seven block solos.
Especially, in the third set, the Wildcats were just outmatched. Chico never lead and the Coyotes won with a comfortable 25-11 victory.
Chico State has another opportunity to win at home on Wednesday at 7 p.m. against CCAA North Division rivals Stanislaus State.
“Stanislaus is also very physical. So, we are going to have to block better, for sure. We’re going to have to pass better. They’re our travel partners; been sort of our rivals for a while.” Coach Hein said, “I think If we pass well than you’re going to be able to see the offense we know how to run. Our offense this weekend just disappeared.”
Ricardo Tovar can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_sports on Twitter.
