The Florida A&M Lady Rattlers defeated the Lady Tigers of Savannah State in straight sets Sunday at the Al Lawson Center in a battle of Mid Eastern Conference Athletic opponents. (25-8 W, 25-17 W, 25-14 W) The Lady Rattlers improve their record to (8-12, 6-1 MEAC) on the season and the Lady Tigers fall to (0-21, 0-6 MEAC) this season.
The Lady Rattlers were in a groove early in the fir set and won going away. They held the Lady Tigers to a hitting percentage of -.087 in the first set, .172 in the second set, and held them to eight points the whole first set.
The Lady Rattlers were more consistent and that put the Lady Tigers in a hole early Savannah State Head Coach Schannon Kyner said.
“They were more consistent than we were and they were executing the ball which let them get into a rhythm early on,” Kyner said.
The Lady Rattlers were confident on the court and had to just keep pace and not get ahead of themselves early Middle Blocker Pamela Barrera said.
“We just needed to play with confidence but not over confident because sometimes we have the tendency to do that,” Barrera said. We played good today and we just need to keep this level of play up for the rest of the season.
The Lady Rattlers wanted to keep their focus and their intensity level up for the whole game that was one of the goals for today Florida A&M Head Coach Tony Trifonov said.
“After game one we didn’t keep the intensity and focus up today,” Trifonov said. “Just because we won easy the first game doesn’t mean we need to drop the intensity level. The girls have had a hard week we pushed them in practice and coming off a win against South Carolina State so their bodies are a little worn out but we need to keep the intensity level up.”
They Lady Rattlers head their opponent to a hitting percentage for -.013 for the game but their defense could have been better Trifonov said.
“Keeping them to a low hitting percentage was a cover up,” Trifonov said. “We had a few digs here and there but once our energy level dropped our defensive play did as well. There was a huge difference between the first set and the second set as far as our play is concerned and we must get better at that.”
The Lady Rattlers had 43 kills in the game and Outside Hitter Katherine Huanec led the team with 12 kills, Outside Hitter Maria Ceccarelli had 11 kills, and Outside Hitter Pamela Barrera rounded out the team with 10 kills.
The Lady Rattlers will prepare for the next game as they go on the road to take on the Lady Aggies of North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, North Carolina. Their next game is Friday November 4, 2011.