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Junior setter Megan Cyr jousts with a Virginia Tech player during the volleyball game in Reynolds Colisseum on Friday, October 14. Photo by John Joyner.
In another disappointing weekend for N.C . State volleyball, Virginia and Virginia Tech handed the Pack consecutive home defeats at Reynolds Coliseum to extend the Pack’s losing streak to six.
Virginia Tech (11-9, 4-5 ACC) and Virginia (8-11, 2-7 ACC) exploited State’s (14-8, 2-7 ACC) weakness at shutting down close games and took advantage of the mental fatigue generated by playing consecutive five-setters by beating them by five and four sets, respectively.
The Hokies dropped the Pack despite a stunning comeback in the second set where they won the final nine points of the set to clinch it 26-24, but that battle seemed to be too much as they tamely lost the final set for their fifth consecutive five-set loss of the season.
The game against the Cavaliers from Virginia saw the Pack fire up after taking the first set 25-22, but that wouldn’t last long as they went on to lose the next three sets in a show that revealed how exerted the team was after playing multiple close games.
Junior Megan Cyr , who has played in every set the Pack has contested this year, felt the defeats were a part of the learning experience and the team needed to put in a lot of work to improve from there on.
“It’s definitely a learning experience. I mean, we have had a tough road of matches this couple of weeks but we have learned from every match,” Cyr said. “We are going to take this game as a learning experience and work hard in practice to make ourselves better.”
Cyr , who had a season high 52 assists against Tech and currently leads the ACC in assists, felt that the loss against Virginia was different from most of their other games and that having numerous errors hurt the team.
“This game has been different from our five set matches, we didn’t fight as hard in the past, but its definitely going to improve from here on because we have learned from the past few matches and this last one was definitely the hardest to take,” Cyr said. “Those [errors] definitely hurt us, we just got to take care of the ball. I think when we passed the ball we would usually score, if we were out of the system or we didn’t take care of the ball that’s what really hurt us.”
Freshman Dariyan Hopper, who led the team in kills and points against Tech, felt the team wasn’t prepared to take on the their foes from the state of Virginia and admitted that a certain amount of complacency might have creeped in.
“I think, overall, we didn’t come out mentally ready and prepared, we kind of thought that since we took Florida State and Miami, which were the top two teams in the conference, to five that it would be easier and we could kind of play to their level,” Hopper said. “That wasn’t the case and they came out just as fired up as we should have been and I think that was the difference in the game.”
Coach Bryan Bunn , who has had a mixed season so far after leading the team to 13 consecutive victories, felt the answer to all the defeats laid in the mental strength of the team.
“We have gone through quite a bit recently with all those 5-set matches. We got to find a way to grow mentally and be a little tougher, so that when we have to rebound next time and play again, we’ll be ready,” Bunn said. “We have to make sure we play at the level we are capable of.”
Bunn felt hard work was the key to lifting up the team, which has now gone almost three weeks without a win but was positive that they could overcome the obstacles in their path and get ready for the upcoming games.
“It’s tough, you have to get to the gym and you have to keep on working hard,” Bunn said. “The hardest thing when you are not being successful is to go back to work, and that’s what we got to do on Monday and Tuesday. We’ve got to work and get ready for Wednesday night.”
Bunn was quick to admit that the upcoming games would be a challenge and that the team was now realizing how tough the ACC actually is.
“Wake’s tough at their place. Duke’s one of the premier programs in the conference so we got to work it out for us,” Bunn said. “We knew that when the ACC season started it was going to be much tougher and the girls are now realizing that.”
N.C . State takes on Wake Forest Wednesday, Oct.19 at Winston Salem.