The women’s volleyball team won one match, but sufferedtwo losses this weekend at the team’s tournament in MoodyColiseum.
“We’re really good. We’re just notclicking,” junior setter Jessica Mihm said. “It’spreseason so I’m not worried about it. I know we’regoing to do well in the WAC. Preseason is what you go through toget all the good kinks out. Hopefully we won’t have problemsonce the season starts.”
SMU hosted the tournament after its originally scheduled trip toTulane for the Nokia Sugar Bowl Classic was cancelled due toinclement weather caused by the string of hurricanes hitting theGulf coast. SMU’s tournament was appropriately renamed theHurricane Ivan-Sugar Bowl Classic.
The Lady Mustangs opened the weekend with a 3-1 win over theUniversity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (30-21, 27-30, 30-15, 30-26)where Mihm moved into second in SMU history for career assists onher 44th assist of the game. She has 433 on the season and 3203 inher career at SMU.
Mihm, along with senior outside hitters Jacky Niederstadt andBeth Karasek, also had double-doubles in the match againstUW-Milwaukee (4-5) – Mihm with 48 assists and 16 digs,Niederstadt with 15 kills and 15 digs and Karasek with 18 kills and20 digs.
After UW-Milwaukee, the Mustangs wouldn’t win anothermatch in the tournament and only won one more game.
“We’re ahead every game, we’re doing reallywell until we get to 20,” Mihm said. “And then the last10 points it seems like everything falls apart. We aren’table to finish it.”
Friday’s second match was a 3-0 loss to University ofMiami (30-20, 30-28, 31-29). The Mustangs opened the match with adisappointing .132 hitting percentage before improving to .318percent by the third game. Junior middle blocker Ashley Zener ledthe team against Miami (4-3) with a .444 percentage on 18 attemptsand 10 kills.
In the third and final match of the tournament, the LadyMustangs fell to the LSU Tigers (30-27, 30-22, 30-32, 30-17),making their record 5-4 so far this season.
Niederstadt led the team in kills with 19 against LSU (8-1). Shealso had nine digs, just missing her fourth consecutivedouble-double. Mihm had a double-double with 48 assists and 11 digsas well as three aces. Freshman Meredith Mormon got her firstcareer start as the libero and led the team with 17 digs.
The team hopes to improve their record and their chemistry onceWAC play begins this week, and they’re working hard to reachthat goal.
“We have a lot of things to sort through,” Karaseksaid. “Starting Monday we got back in the gym and went fullforce. That’s the only way we’re going to reach ourgoal of getting to the NCAA [tournament].”
The Lady Mustangs will take on UTEP Thursday at 7 p.m. in theconference home-opener at Moody Coliseum.
“I know we always play really well against UTEP,”Mihm said. “They’re not a bad team, but we should beatthem. We always get pumped up to play them. Last year we killedthem. It’ll be nice to have our first conference game athome.”
