Jeff Bilodeau
Staff Writer
USM’s volleyball team lost Tuesday to Bates College at Costello Gym in Gorham. The Huskies went down for the fifth straight time dropping their record to 2-6, while the Bobcats improve to 2-6.
Bates took the first two matches easily, as the Huskies struggled to work as a team. Sophomore captain, Ellie Daigle (Rollinsford, N.H.), blamed the team’s inexperience for the early woes. “We have a lot of talent,” said Daigle. “But we’re young, a lot of them don’t know what to expect from the other teams.”
USM rallied around freshman Shannon Stoll (Shrewsbury, Mass.), who scored six straight points to help give the Huskies a 30-27 win in the third match. Stoll ended the day with 10 kills, seven service aces, and four digs.
The fourth match was highly contested, but Bates’ experience proved to be the difference in the end as they won 30-25. USM looked more comfortable as the game progressed, but as Coach John Razsa said after the match the team has a hard time finding a rhythm.
“We played well once we gained some confidence. It has been difficult, because of injuries and being forced to use a variety of different lineups.”
Although the Huskies have struggled to win in this early part of the season, senior captain Amanda Starkey (Center Barnstead, N.H.) doesn’t think the team is drifting apart.
“We love each other,” said Starkey. “We’re a super young team, it’s a building year. We just need to play more together.”
Starkey led the team with a game high 14 kills and 15 digs. Daigle had 29 assists for the Huskies and freshman Allison White (Northboro, Mass.) added eight kills and eight digs in the loss.
In the upcoming matches the Huskies will start playing former opponents. “We’re going to start seeing team’s again,” said Daigle. “We’ll know what they are like, and this will help us play better in the start.”
Coach Razsa says we haven’t seen all of his teams’ talent.
“We’re going to work on things, we can do much more and play a lot better.”
The Huskies will have to string together a few victories if the want to make good on the target set by Razsa.
“Our goal is to make the Little East Conference Playoffs.”
USM can turn things around on Wednesday against UMass Dartmouth and when they go back on the road Saturday for the Salem State Invitational.