Volleyball Opens Colorado Trip with Back-to-Back Losses

9/2/2022 11:19:00 PM | By: Noah Tylutki, Graduate Assistant

John Carroll played its opening matches of the season at Colorado College, which is 6,035 feet above sea level.

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The John Carroll volleyball team started their 2022 season at the Pikes Peak Challenge at Colorado College, where they lost to the host Tigers 3-0 (10-25, 18-25, 16-25) and to Hardin-Simmons 3-0 (20-25, 13-25, 14-25).

This marked the first time the Blue Streaks have ever played a match in the Centennial State and first against a team from Colorado or Texas.

JCU has also not lost six straight sets to open a season since 2003.

Match 1
The Tigers, who came into the season ranked 14th in the AVCA Preseason Poll after a 30-6 finish in 2021, jumped out to a quick 10-4 lead. Six points would be the closest JCU would be within for the remainder of the set, as the Blue Streaks committed nine errors in the 25-10 first set loss.

Colorado College continued their dominance at the start of the second, racing out to a 9-2 advantage. However, the Blue Streaks would close the gap and go down by one 13-12 courtesy of a Cassi Calamunci kill. It was short lived as the Tigers scored 12 of the final 18 points to take the set 25-18, and the closest the Blue Streaks got was within two.

JCU tied it up 5-5 in the third set for the first time since early in the opening period, and knotted the score up again 11-11 on a Steph Conley kill.

That turned out to be the closest John Carroll would come at leading as the Tigers closed out the set on a 14-6 run.

The Blue Streaks never led in the match and only managed to tie up the score three times.

Colorado College registered 37 kills while the Blue Streaks managed only 24. The Tigers also hit .350 while JCU hit .056, their lowest in a road match since October 31, 2017 against Otterbein (.034).

Jillian Kellick and Jessica Liddle each had six kills for John Carroll, and Isabella Lipacis led the way for the Tigers with 11.

Match 2
Hardin-Simmons, located in Abilene, Texas out of the American Southwest Conference, took a fast 9-3 advantage to open the first set. The Blue Streaks eventually fought back to make it a three-point match at 20-17, but the Cowgirls rattled off the final five points to take the set 25-20.

John Carroll took their first lead of the entire day in the second on a 6-3 start, but Hardin-Simmons scored 10 of the next 12 to take a 13-8 advantage, which catapulted the Cowgirls to a 25-13 victory in set two.

More of the same took place in the third set, with HSU taking a 13-3 lead to open the period. JCU got within single digits just once the rest of the match, as the Cowgirls took the final set 25-14.

Calamunci and Abigail Kirk led the way with nine and seven kills, respectfully while Gabby Jones and Hannah Langerman each tallied nine for the Cowgirls.

The Blue Streaks could only manage to hit .186 while HSU hit .344.

John Carroll will wrap up their visit to the Centennial State with matches against Lawrence and Wisconsin-Superior on Saturday, September 3. The first one against Lawrence is set for 12:00pm EST (10:00am MT) and the second against Superior is at 2:00pm (12:00pm MT).

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