The Lady Rattlers played hard, but their efforts fell short as they lost to the Troy Trojans again in the Alfred Lawson Multipurpose Center and Teaching gym Tuesday night.
The previous meeting between the two volleyball teams, the Trojans beat Florida A&M 3-0, that was the first and only shut-out the Rattlers had all season.
The Rattlers played with revenge on their mind coming into this game riding a five game win streak, looking to make it six. The last loss the Rattlers had was to the Troy Trojans.
It took the Trojans all five sets to beat the fiery Rattlers. Senior public relations student Karol Marquez said, “They’re a really good team, they are better than the teams we played in the MEAC. I think we got use to the MEAC teams. The first time they beat us bad, but we played good and we are going for the MEAC title now.”
The Rattlers play was inconsistent at times; having two weeks off after being out of competition for a whole week after the cancelation of the Jacksonville University game didn’t help the Rattlers get the victory.
Coach Tanio Trifonov, said, “We had 11 or 12 days off between matches, so we had rust, but definitely needed to play some good non-conference opponents. We played better tonight than we did at Troy; we can use this game as a measuring stick to see where we go from here.”
The Trojans offense was led by the Alexandria Alexander with 50 assists that got hitters, Alicia Dukes, Devin Von Pingel going and put them ahead of the Rattlers for good.
Maria Ceccarelli led the Rattlers with 24 kills and 55 assists. Cardio Pulmonary Science Junior Katherine Huanec said, “I don’t feel happy about the stats, because we didn’t win, but I know we’re playing better. This two weeks off we had we’ve been in the weight room more and practicing harder.”
The Lady Rattlers are preparing for their upcoming MEAC battles over the weekend with two games against scrappy teams.
The Rattlers play the South Carolina State Lady Bulldogs Friday then travel to Savannah State on Sunday.