Mistakes Doom Lady Hornets against Mississippi Valley

Sept. 15, 2005

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Alabama State volleyball coach Sonia Price looked at the stat sheet in dismay after Mississippi Valley State posted a three-game sweep, 30-23, 30-28, 30-19, against the Lady Hornets at a raucous Lockhart Gymnasium Thursday night.

What she saw was a team that had more blocks (19-9) and a better hitting percentage (.218-.146) lose, in part, because it made an overabundance of errors. ASU (2-6, 0-1 SWAC East) had 21 blocking errors and 25 ball handling errors that helped the Delta Devilettes (4-1, 1-0) pull away.

"I'd like to say our not playing in over a week contributed to our bad play but I can't," Price said. "We've been working on these errors and a lot of them are unexplainable. If the errors aren't there, we could've dominated."

The Lady Hornets, behind the play of Rachine Francis (seven kills in eight attempts) led 22-21 in the first game before falling apart. With Ashley Robinson on serve, Valley scored seven straight points to take over the game.

"We know Robinson is one of the top servers in the SWAC. But I'm trying to get them to understand that you don't have to panic, you just have to adjust," Price said.

MVSU, which made only nine blocking and ball handling errors combined, raced out to a 17-6 advantage in the second game before Alabama State got on a roll. Freshman Jennifer Clapp had four straight winners to help the Lady Hornets get to within one point before Valley closed out the game.

The Delta Devilettes again raced out to a big lead in Game 3 but this time, ASU was unable to conjure up a second rally.

"At times, we've looked really good," Price said. "If we start cleaning up some of the errors, we'll look like a team that can contend for a SWAC championship."

Francis had a team-high 11 kills and nine blocks while Clapp (eight kills, four digs), middle blocker Cambreisha Bodney (four kills, 12 blocks) and setter Janee Tranchina (26 assists, five blocks) also had strong performances for the Lady Hornets.

Alabama State plays this weekend as it hosts the Lady Hornet Invitational. ASU takes on Clark Atlanta at 2 p.m., then faces Mississippi Valley at 6 p.m. The Lady Hornets return Saturday to battle Stillman College at 3 p.m.