The Falcons volleyball team won both of their road matches Friday and Saturday nights, first defeating the Kent State Golden Flashes 3-1 before traveling to play the Ohio Bobcats, also defeating them 3-1.
“We got a little bit more aggressive with our serves,” Falcons head coach Danijela Tomic said. “We talked in the second set that we felt that we needed to take them out of system, we talked about making an adjustment with our serves, better at the first line of attack, and that’s what we did. We did a really good job behind the serving line and just kept them out of system.”
Friday’s match started with the Falcons getting off to a good start, taking the first set 25-20. However, Kent State fought back in the second with a 25-21 victory. In the third set, the Falcons recovered with a 25-16 victory to retake the lead, then finished off the match with a 25-13 win in the fourth set to claim the 3-1 match victory.
“We went back to fundamentals, we didn’t have to do anything super special,” Tomic said. “I felt like we were just playing the second set not to lose, and that’s not a way for us to play, that’s not a way for anybody to play. We said that we needed to get on the attack on serves, and it clicked.”
Tomic added, “After (the second set), we started getting the ball down and the defense stepped up. We had different players stepping up at different times, we were digging and serving right, so it was a complete team effort tonight.”
Despite getting the win, the team knew they had to turn around quickly and carry on the energy from Friday’s win into Saturday’s match.
“Ohio is a tough place to play,” Tomic said. “We have to be aggressive behind the serving line, that’s something we have to do to make our adjustments to our defense.”
On Saturday, the team got off to a rough start, with Ohio taking the first set 25-17. However, after that, the Falcons regrouped and never looked back with a 25-21 victory in the second set followed by wins in the next two sets, both with 25-22 scores, giving the team the 3-1 victory and their third consecutive win of the season. The team now holds a 3-1 record against other Mid-American Conference teams this season.
The team will next play at home Friday, Oct. 6 and Saturday, Oct. 7 nights, first taking on the Buffalo Bisons before facing the Akron Zips the following night.
