The Florida A&M Lady Rattlers will try to bounce back from two straight losses as the travel to Durham, N.C., to face the Lady Eagles of North Carolina Central Eagles.
The Lady Rattlers come into the match 6-12, 4-1 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, and the Eagles come into the game 7-22. The Eagles snapped a four game losing streak Sunday as they defeated the Spartans of Norfolk State as they came back from two sets down to win.
Florida A&M won in straight sets the last time these two teams played, but each set was decided by five points or less.
The Lady Rattlers didn’t come out strong early in the last two games, and want to get back to the same intensity and energy it had when they were on a six-game winning streak.
“Our team does best when we come out with a lot of energy and intensity right from the beginning,” freshman Kilani Davis said.
Florida A&M looks to duplicate the performance the last time these two teams played. The Lady Rattlers used their speed over the Eagles’ power by forcing North Carolina Central into 23 errors and a hitting percentage of .098 for the game.
The Lady Rattlers are looking to put together another string of wins after their win-streak was snapped. Davis said getting the first few points in the match normally helps the Lady Rattlers come out victorious.
“As long as we can come out strong and get the first run of points, we will have no problem coming out victorious,” Davis said. “It stops the other team from being confident and makes them more cautious and more likely to make mistakes when they look at the scoreboard and see us ahead of them early.”
The Lady Rattlers head coach Tony Trifonov said he has seen improvement in the team’s hitting, but pointed out at times, the players try to hit every ball.
“We have a lot of players who are playing out of position so, they are unfamiliar with the position they are playing,” Trifonov said. “The players need to understand we can’t hit every ball, but we can strategically place the ball better in certain places so we can expose the weakness of the defense.”
The Lady Rattlers will have their hands full trying to contain the Eagles’ junior Sasha Wallen. She has had 23 kills in her previous two games with hitting percentages of .250 and .478.
Florida A&M will face North Carolina Central Friday at 7 p.m. and try to avoid a three-game losing skid.