Lady Rams Fall To Columbia

Statistically, the University of Rhode Island volleyball team dominated Columbia Friday afternoon. But the outcome was a different story.

The Rams had 67 kills to Columbia’s 48. They had six more digs, 18 more assists, and shot 29 percentage points better than the visiting Lions. But when the dust settled, it was Columbia who would be celebrating after squeaking out a 3-2 win over Rhody in the first game of the third-annual Art Carmichael Invitational. The loss drops the Rams to 5-2 on the season.

With the deciding fifth game tied at 15, Columbia rattled off a pair of points including the match-winner that dropped between three Rams.

“No consistency,” Rams Head Coach Bob Schneck said. “We have to be more consistent in order to win games like that. When it comes down to two points between two teams that’s a match that anyone can win, but you need to be consistent. At the end both players were looking. One looked at the other. You’ve got to go after that ball.”

The Rams came out sharp early taking the opening game 25-14, and it looked as though they would cruise. But Columbia would not go away, and would eventually take games two and three by scores of 25-22 and 25-23.

Rhody reasserted themselves in the fourth game, leading from the start and cruising to a 25-20 win to even the match at two games apiece. The fifth game was close throughout, but Columbia did what they had to do during crunch time to get the win.

“We need to play consistent,” Schneck said. “In the fourth game, which we had to win, we were the first to five, first to 10, first to 15, first to 20, and first to 25. In the second and third games, which we lost, we allowed them to get these huge leads and then we’d come back in the last five points and try to win it.”

Even in defeat, the Rams had several great individual performances. No one played better than senior Kayla Wilson, who had a match-high 17 kills and a team-high 19 digs.

Freshman Catie Steffan had 14 kills while sophomores Britta Baarstad and Jill Anderson had 13 and 16 kills respectively.

“They know how to play,” Schneck said. “This is a good team, but our competition is only going to get harder in this tournament.”

Junior Annie Nelson set up most of those kills, tallying 53 assists.

The Rams play Wisconsin tonight at 7 p.m. before finishing the Carmichael Invitational tomorrow at 7 p.m. against Boston College. Admission is free to both games.