In the final home stand of the year, the volleyball team won two out of three matches this weekend.
The Rattlerettes were victorious over Howard Friday night and Hampton Saturday afternoon, but fell to Georgia Tech Sunday.
In three straight games (30-15, 30-9, 30-20) Florida A&M dominated the Bison. This win increased the team’s home winning streak to twelve matches, and its consecutive Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference victories to 50.
Freshman players were lighting up the court both offensively and defensively. Andreina Ruiz led the team with nine digs, while teammates Adriana Kostadinova and Giulianna Velorio controlled the net adding 10 digs and five kills, respectively.
Friday was also senior night for the Rattlerettes and the five seniors were awarded with a golden volleyball, flowers, and a FAMU sweatshirt.
Proving her experience and leadership as a senior, setter Delisha Peterson entered the match in the second game and posted 26 assists.
Coming off Friday’s win, the Rattlerettes showed up ready to play Saturday afternoon against Hampton winning 30-7, 30-17 and 30-16.
Senior Fiorella Aita Junek ensured that Hampton would never come close to catching the Rattlerettes by contributing 16 kills.
“In the first game we played better as a team, but the momentum fell in the second game,” said senior Shavonne Newsome.
The road to victory in the second game was a little rougher for the Rattlerettes. There were momentary lapses of sanity with balls dropping in the middle of the court, but none of these lasted long.
“FAMU proved to everyone that they’re the most dominant team in the conference,” said Hampton head coach Tiny Laster.
The team picked up slightly in the third game but was still pretty sluggish. The Pirates were leading by six points before FAMU even got on the scoreboard to initiate a comeback.
“After we scored a few points, they (Florida A&M) got a wake-up call,” Laster said.
In their final home match of the year, the Rattlerettes lost to Georgia Tech in three straight games (30-27, 30-22, 30-25). Though the match was played very well by both teams, the Yellow Jackets simply overpowered the Rattlerettes.
This was the second time FAMU faced Georgia Tech and the second time they left the court defeated.
The first appearance was at the Georgia Tech Tournament and the Rattlerettes lost in four games.
“In the first game, we played better as a team, but the momentum fell in the second game,” said junior Ursula Jara.
Indeed they did, because the team added 19 of their 48 kills in the first game.
In the second and third games, there were less kills and more service errors which contributed to the team’s demise.
Now that the team is done with regular season play, they are gearing up for the MEAC tournament that will be begin tomorrow.
Going into the playoffs, Ruiz said, “There’s no doubt that we’ll win.”