Sports In Brief

October 4, 2010

Volleyball bounces back, beats Saint Louis at home

The volleyball team could be forgiven for being less than comfortable with its 2-0 lead after two sets Sunday afternoon against Saint Louis. After all, the Colonials were in a similar situation Tuesday night, up 2-0 against Duquesne before dropping three straight sets to fall 5-2.

GW avoided déj? vu Sunday by beating the Billikens 3-1.

“It was definitely a whole team effort,” sophomore Lauren Whyte said. “We were really frustrated after being up two games and then letting it slip away against Duquesne. Today we just wanted to be mentally and physically tough and just never let down.”

Ensuring that his team did not let Friday’s loss creep into Sunday’s game was a priority for head coach Jojit Coronel, who said he was concerned about his team’s mentality coming into its game against Saint Louis.

“For any athlete, it gets in your psyche,” Coronel said. “In a team sport you don’t know if it’s gonna creep in. If it creeps in one person, it creeps in the next, it becomes contagious, so we just wanted to make sure we didn’t focus on Duquesne’s match, even though we’re up 2-0, same situation.”

“That was the biggest thing against Duquesne, we just lost our aggressiveness and our energy. Those are easy fixes, it’s not a physical thing, it’s a mental thing,” he added.

The win had added historical significance for GW, which beat Saint Louis for the first time in the history of the two teams. Coming off the loss to the Dukes, topping the historically tough Billikens was impressive, Coronel said.

“It’s great for the girls, because those five-game losses, especially when you’re up two games to [none], they sort of irk you throughout the season, like, ‘Are you capable of doing it?'” he said. “This team has been always capable of playing at a high level. To be able to do that against a really tough Saint Louis team that’s notoriously one of the top teams in the conference and in the country is pretty great.”

Whyte led the Colonials in kills with 19, followed by senior Katie Zulandt, who had 13. Sophomore Candace Silva-Martin led GW on defense with 22 digs.

After dealing with the Duquesne loss mentally Friday, Zulandt said she was especially happy to wrap up the weekend with a win.

“I think we just took the team on Friday for granted, definitely. Today, we came out making sure that same thing didn’t happen,” she said. “Today we took care of our business, took care of our side and we kept up the energy and sent Saint Louis home, which is good.”