The GW volleyball team dropped its second and third consecutive conference matches this weekend with road loses at Massachusetts and Rhode Island. With these loses the Colonials (4-9, 3-3) evened their previous first-place conference record to 3-3.

The Colonials fell behind early to a powerful Minutewomen squad Saturday in their sixth-straight road match, before losing 3-0. UMass dominated the Colonials, offensively and defensively taking three straight games from the Colonials: 30-23, 30-23, 30-22. UMass out hit the Colonials .319 to .149 and totaled nine blocks. The Colonials only notched one block.

In addition to powerful play by UMass, the Colonials added to their own defeat with 11 attack errors in the third game alone, allowing UMass to run away with the win.

Returning starter Ruth Lazzari hit a team high .333 percent with nine kills in 21 attacks and two errors. In contrast, the Minutewomen’s leading hitter, Clare Baxter, had 10 kills in 14 attempts with no errors for a .714 attack percentage.

Sarah Hokom continued her impressive play in the UMass game with 11 kills, while freshman Molly Law racked up her second straight double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs.

Prior to Saturday’s loss, GW lost 3-1 at URI’s Keaney Gym. While the game marked GW’s second straight A-10 loss, it was the Rams (8-7, 5-1 A-10) fifth straight victory.

A balanced Rhode Island team dominated the Colonials, who were plagued with 37 errors in the match. Five different Rams had 10 kills or more, hitting .233 as a team. The Colonials hit .106 as a team. While three Colonials racked up double digit kills, two posted negative attack percentages.

“There are moments when our passing isn’t as good, and sometimes, when the passing is there, the hitters don’t put it away,” Lazzari said “When we need things to connect, they’re not connecting all the time.”

The Colonials lagged behind right from the start of game one and Rhode Island took an early 15-4 lead. They never looked back and took game one 30-20.

Rhode Island grew stronger in game two hitting .341 with a team total 19 kills while keeping GW at .200. Rhode Island took the game 30-25.

GW tried to turn the match around by launching a fierce comeback in game three. They racked up 19 kills hitting .240 as a team, their highest percentage of the day. They grabbed an early 16-8 lead but barely held on as the Rams came within two at 25-23. GW held on, and salvaged one game this weekend, 30-26.

GW’s rally was short lived though, and the Rams came out on the winning end of a hard fought game four. After nine lead changes and nine ties the Rams took the lead at 23-18. The Colonials came within one and pushed it to 25-24 before URI took the game and the match with four straight points.

“We played better than we did against some of the teams we’ve beaten,” Lazzari said referring to the Colonials 3-0 start in conference play. GW defeated La Salle, Duquesne and Fordham in their first conference games. Lazzari said the Colonials are beginning to face more difficult teams than they had in the beginning of the season.

“The teams are better, and we have been on the road for the last three weeks,” Lazzari said. “At times we play really well, but then you look at the scoreboard and we’re down five points.”

Law had her finest collegiate game racking up career-high 16 kills and 13 digs with a pair of block assists.

Lazzari continued to lead the Colonials with a team high .333 hitting percentage, 15 kills, 10 digs and three block assists.

Despite the losses, Lazzari said the team remains positive.

“Everyone still has the same confidence, we just need to have more of a desire to win,” she said. “We still have a lot of growth on the team and we are all still trying to get used to each other. But we are playing a lot more like a team than we were at the beginning of the season.

The Colonials look to break their losing streak when the return home to face Xavier October 12.

Lazzari said of Xavier, “they are definitely one of the better teams in the conference but if we play the game I’ve seen us play in practice, we can win.”