Volleyball team takes two home matches

The Florida A&M University Lady Rattlers (15-6 overall, 9-0 MEAC) swept the North Florida Lady Ospreys (13-14 overall) off the court.

The Lady Rattlers didn’t have much of a challenge in last Wednesday’s game, defeating the Lady Ospreys 3-0.

After the loss to the Lady Rattlers, Lady Osprey coach Bryan Bunn, said he imagined his team would have stepped up a notch to enhance its performance.

“We just didn’t pass well, and we didn’t put forth any energy,” Bunn said.

A few of the Lady Rattlers were pleased with their performance but said there is still room for improvement. Marrita Royster-Crockett said it wouldn’t hurt for her to improve her shots and off-the-block hitting.

“I’m just getting back into jumping because of my foot injury,” Royster-Crockett said.

Outside hitter Royster-Crockett, who led the team with 19 kills, gave the team an 11-0 lead at the beginning of game one, and the team ended up winning 30-21.

“I think we played really well. The energy was slow, but it tapered up and down during our performance,” Royster- Crockett said.

After the scheduled game time changed to 2 p.m., the Lady Rattlers didn’t have much time to prepare. Head coach Tanio Trifonov said he didn’t think the time affected the players at all, but it did put a dent in the fan turn out.

“We had tests right before, we had to take pictures, warm-up and then play,” Royster-Crockett said.

However, that didn’t hinder the Lady Rattlers’ performance in game two. Maria Andonova, outside hitter and middle blocker, gained the first point for the Lady Rattlers.

The Lady Ospreys kept the game close by keeping the score within two points, 17-15.

“We need to improve on concentration lapse with giving up 3 or 4 points,” Trifonov said.

The Lady Rattlers were still able to pull the win out. Freshman outside hitter Maria Gomez scored the game-winning point and ended the game 30-24.

The Lady Ospreys took the lead early in game three, 2-1, but began to falter later on. Trifonov took a timeout while the Lady Ospreys were up 5-2, and Royster-Crockett geared the girls up, bringing them back 6-6. Libero, Rosa Rojos, contributed to the Lady Rattlers taking and maintaining the lead.

After many comeback attempts, the Lady Ospreys just couldn’t keep up with the Lady Rattlers.

Even though this is not a conference game, the ladies wanted to keep their winning streak intact.

Trifonov was pleased with the team’s performance and is prepared for future games.

“I’m pretty happy with 3-0 win,” Trifonov said. “We played a lot more aggressive and decisive.”

The Lady Rattlers defeated the Mercer University Lady Bears 3-1 Tuesday in their final home game of the season.