The GW volleyball team came to Bender Arena at American University on Tuesday on a mid-season six-game losing streak. After getting shut out in their previous two matches, a Colonials win would have been a confidence booster for a team that had already suffered a seven-game losing streak to open the season.
GW hung tough but fell 26-30, 16-30, 30-28 and 30-14. The losing streak tied a season high at seven games.
“We have a team that can play great, it’s a matter of them choosing to play volleyball,” coach Jojit Coronel said. “As a player I didn’t care about losing or winning, I knew I was going to win. It was about playing volleyball. It was about doing things well on the court.”
“I think we have some players on the team that feel that we have some players that don’t have the passion to get better,” he added. “They expect their teammates to carry the load and we need that passion. We have a lot of good things but we just need to put them together.”
The tables turned in the third game, as the Colonials fought hard to only allow one tie and maintain their lead throughout the entire game. Freshman Janine Brown, who came off the bench, collected half of her kills in the game and propelled the Colonials.
Resorting back to the style of play that was prevalent in the first two games, American went on a 7-0 run to start the game. The Colonials could not bounce back from the Eagles’ early run as they quickly dropped the game by 16 points.
Sophomore Juliene McLaughlin said the Colonials should have come out stronger against American.
“It was brutal,” she said. “No one is happy about that because that team was so beatable and that’s the story of our season thus far. I think we all want to win and we aren’t together at the same time. It’s hard when there’s even one person not showing the same passion as everyone else.”
On Saturday, the Colonials return to the Smith Center to face A-10 rival Duquesne. The match is a must-win for the Colonials in order to keep their hopes alive for postseason play. “We need to beat Duquesne,” Coronel said.
