Troy University Athletics
Troy University
University of the Pacific
Trojans Suffer Tough Loss to Pacific
9/11/2009 11:30:00 PM | Volleyball
OXFORD, Ohio - The Trojans kicked off the Miami Best Western Sycamore Inn Invitational on Friday when they took on the Pacific Tigers. The two teams have never met before and they gave the fans an exciting match to watch. Unfortunately for Troy, they fell to the Tigers in four sets, 18-25, 29-31, 27-25, 22-25.
"With the exception of the first set, we played very well," said head coach Sonny Kirkpatrick, "We did everything we're trained to do, and if we continue to do that we can compete with anyone."
The Trojans (3-5) were led by senior middle hitter Meghan Gilroy with 21 kills. The Pensacola, Fla. native hit for a .300 percentage with 50 attempts, the most of any Trojan this season. Megan Henderson added 37 assists. Troy had four players with double digit digs, including Lizzie Clough (13), Laura Mackley (13), Vicky Rogoschewsky (10) and Henderson (10).
In the first set, the Trojans fell into an early hole, losing the first three points. After the Trojans got their first point off of a Gilroy kill, the Tigers (5-1) took the next two and pulled ahead, 1-5. The two teams traded points all the way to 6-10, that is when the Tigers took five of seven to pull ahead by seven points at 8-15.
The Trojans could never get closer than four points and fell to Pacific, 18-25.
The second set went much better for the Trojans and was a thriller in every sense of the word. The Trojans fell to the Tigers in the second set, 29-31.
Troy got out to an early lead, taking five of the first six and pulling ahead 5-1 early. However, the Tigers battled back to tied the score at 7-7. At that time, the Trojans took four of five to go ahead, 11-8. The Trojans held the lead all the way to 15-15. At that time, Pacific took five of seven to pull ahead 17-20.
Troy then took three straight to tie the set up at 20-20. The Trojans actually had a few set points with the score at 24-22, however the Tigers battled back and scored three straight to get their own set point at 24-25.
After Troy took a timeout, they fought off set point and scored two straight to pull ahead, 26-25. The Trojans missed another chance to close out the set and lost the next two, falling behind, 26-27. The Trojans didn't back down with there back against the fall, and they scored two more to pull ahead, 28-27.
At that point, the two sides traded points, and the Trojans found themselves with their fifth set point at 29-28. It was then that the Tigers took over and scored three straight, two off of Trojans errors, and took the second set, 29-31.
The Trojans were led in the second set by Gilroy who had eight kills and two blocks, Henderson added 12 assists.
Down by two sets, the Trojans didn't give up, and they took another thriller in the third set, 27-25.
The Trojans fell behind 0-2, but took three straight to pull ahead, 3-2. At that time the two teams traded points and found themselves tied at 9-9. The Trojans then went on a 5-0 run to take a 14-9 lead. The Trojans maintained the lead until it was 17-12 and Pacific went on a three point run to pull within two at 17-15.
The Tigers eventually pulled even at 22-22. After a Trojan timeout, the two squads traded the next four and found themselves tied at 24-24. The Trojans then step up in the clutch and won four of five to take the second set, 27-25. That run was culminated by a block by senior Lauren Barney-Baker and freshman Devin Von Pingel to clinch the set.
In the fourth set, after being tied at 2-2, the Trojans fell behind 5-10. They didn't give in however, and fought back to tie the score at 12-12. At that time, the Tigers took control of the set by winning five of six to pull ahead, 13-17. The Trojans continued to trail by four all the way to 19-23. It was at that time that the Trojans scored three straight to get within one at 22-23. However, after a Pacific timeout, the Tigers scored two consecutive points to take the set, 22-25, and the match, 1-3.
"In my opinion, Pacific is the best team in this field," Kirkpatrick said, "for us to be a couple of points away from winning the match, it means that we're moving in the right direction."
The Trojans will be back in action again tomorrow when they take on the host Miami (OH) RedHawks at 9:30 a.m. ET and St. John's at 3 p.m. ET.
When they take on the RedHawks, Kirkpatrick will be across the court from one of his long time mentors in Carolyn Condit.
"One of my goals for a long time has been to coach against one of her teams," Kirkpatrick said, "I respect her very much and I'm really excited about tomorrow."
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