After the volleyball team’s first loss of the season, senior Corey Domek came into the next match on a mission.

In that first match against New Orleans, the Falcons hit a season-low .096. Last weekend in the second match against Texas Tech, Domek hit an impressive .300 and had 19 kills.

It was Domek and the left side hitters that helped the Falcons bounce back from an opening loss to defeat Texas Tech and Southern Louisiana in last weekend’s Radisson New Orleans Airport Privateer Invitational.

The Falcons started off the tournament with a 25-16, 25-19, 25-22 loss to New Orleans, ending the team’s four-match win streak to start the season.

BG struggled from the beginning, hitting .033 in the first set and .077 in the second set, while a tough New Orleans team took control and hit .367 in the opening set.

‘We just couldn’t get it going,’ said coach Denise Van De Walle. ‘We didn’t produce much offense at all, as you can tell from the numbers. New Orleans is a very good volleyball team.’

‘They are bigger than we are and executed nearly a perfect game plan against us. They exploited some of our weaknesses right away.’

Shari Luther led the Falcons with eight kills and four blocks, while Emily Kauth added seven kills with a team best .333 attacking percentage.

In the second match against Texas Tech, the Falcons’ strong offense helped them roll to a 20-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-18 victory.

In the final two sets, BG hit .433 and .481 to make it tough for the Red Raiders to respond. As a team, the Falcons held a 48-34 advantage in digs, with Kaitlin Jackson and Alex Zlabis adding 16 apiece.

Van De Walle was a lot happier with that performance.

‘Against Texas Tech we were a different team,’ she said. ‘We got much more from our left side hitters [that] match. We controlled the match after the first set, and it was a good win for us.’

Along with Domek’s strong performance, Luther had 12 kills and a .478 attack percentage and Allison Kearney had 52 assists.

To close the weekend out, the Falcons swept Southeastern Louisiana, 25-14, 27-25, 25-18, improving to 6-1 on the season.

BG was never really tested in the opening set, as they jumped out to an early 13-3 advantage.

In the second set, the Lions had a chance to win with a 24-23 lead, but Jackson wouldn’t let it happen. She had a nice kill to tie the score.

As a team, the Lions hit just .105 while BG hit .290. Kauth ended up with a team-high 10 kills and a gaudy .562 hitting percentage. Helping out Kauth were Domek and Cassie Berning, who each had eight kills.

After the 6-1 start, Van De Walle is happy with the progress the team is making.

‘We’re learning a lot each weekend as we see the team compete,’ she said. ‘[This week in practice] we’ll be working on serving and passing. [We] can’t get enough of that. Plus, our blocking is in need of some work.’

The Falcons will play in front of a home crowd at Anderson Arena this weekend, hosting the Best Western Falcon Plaza Invitational Friday and Saturday with Wisconsin, Northern Iowa and Robert Morris coming to town.