Volleyball opens season with 1-3 loss to Holy Names

Johnson & Wales University began their 2012 season with the first of two home contests against Holy Names University on Saturday night in the Wildcat Center. The 'Cats opened the night with short scoring spurts to match those of the Hawks. A close set was determined in the final volleys where errors by JWU handed Holy Names the first win.

The second set saw JWU coming back from an early deficit to go on a 7-0 run to bring the set to 11-7. The Hawks started to build some steam but attacking by Blake Walden and Kyle McDonald kept the set out of reach allowing Johnson & Wales to take the 25-21 win.

In the third set, the Hawks seemed to click on every touch while the 'Cats were plagued by attacking errors. Holy Names built a 19-9 advantage and took the third set easily by a final score of 25-14.

The fourth and final set had Johnson & Wales again struggling in their attacking. The 'Cats committed 17 attacking errors in the final two sets that put them down early. Johnson & Wales managed to rally and stage a comeback but couldn't make it all the way, dropping the set 23-25.

Walden finished the night with 11 kills and Matt Jenkins was .278 attacking on 18 attempts. Damon Sichler had 31 assists and Ryan Schroerlucke came up with a game high 18 digs. Trevor Parker had 13 kills and .632 attacking for the Hawks while Nick Kalustian had 37 set assists and Jayme Hannan added 14 digs.

Johnson & Wales seemed to play through peaks and valleys all evening in the 1-3 (22-25, 25-21, 14-25, 23-25) loss to the Holy Names Hawks. The two sides will meet again tomorrow at 1pm in the Wildcat Center.