Jacks’ Lauren Reid’s 18 kills not enough
Lumberjacks outside hitter Lauren Reid led all players on the volleyball court with her game-high 18 kills but it wasn’t enough as the Jacks dropped all three sets (25-23, 25-22, 25-16) to the Stanislaus State Warriors at Lumberjack Arena on Sept. 29.
“We have a pretty young team and I think tonight that really showed,” Jacks middle blocker Emma Flewell said. “We just got scared when we were playing. We were up and the pressure was on and we started playing scared.”
Reid did her part in the first set and was responsible for the first three points of the match. Every time the Warriors closed the gap, Reid was there to nail another kill shot to put her team up. Her 18 total kills accounted for half of all of the Jacks kills.
“Our inexperience has been very much highlighted,” Jacks head coach Kelly Wood said. “We had set one. We had a big lead but it’s like we almost have gotten used to us losing that the pressure got to us in that first set.”
The two teams seemed to be evenly matched but there was an ingredient missing for the Jacks. Reid’s presence was felt by the the Warriors constantly while she was on her side of the court but when she was subbed out to rest, the rest of the Jacks struggled to garner a steady attack. The Warriors kept the pressure on in the second set and hammered away to extend their lead and took the second set 25-22.
“They’re a really scrappy team,” Warriors middle blocker Alana Wilson-Reid said. “No one should ever underestimate them and they pushed us to our limits.”
The Jacks pulled ahead by four in the beginning of the third set but after the score was tied at 10 the Warriors jumped out to a seven-point lead that the Jacks could not come back from. The Warriors had a staggering .257 attack percentage and were the better and more experienced team on this night.
Some of the Jacks standouts were sophomore outside hitter Sumer Hansen who had eight kills and nine and a half total points. Sophomore setter Julianna Burtolucci led all Jacks players with 27 assists along with six digs and Jacks junior libero Odelia Ryan led the Jacks with 23 digs and three service aces.
“We’re working on getting more production out of our front row of our offense,” Coach Wood said. “Offensively we’re just riding Lauren Reid. We’re sending her a ton of balls. We need more balance and we need more production from our offense.”
The Jacks travel south to San Francisco State for their next match on Oct. 5. First serve is at 7 p.m.
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