Playing far away from home not a new experience for road-tested Nicholls volleyball squad

The Nicholls volleyball team will be going from a long-lasting match to a long-distance road trip in seeking its first Southland Conference win of the season.

Nicholls lost at home to Lamar last Saturday, 21-15, 28-26, 25-14, 21-25, 12-15 to fall to 0-7 in the Southland and 2-15 overall. It marked the first time all season a Lady Colonel match went to five sets.

The Lady Colonels led 2-1 going into Game 4. Nicholls was unable to put the game away as Lamar forced the deciding fifth game.

Nicholls raced out to a 4-0 advantage in the fifth game before Lamar took the lead at 6-5. The game was tied 11-11 before Lamar took the lead on a service error by Nicholls’ Rae Leano. Lamar won 15-11, with the match-winning point coming on a kill by Lamar’s Lyric Jordan.

“I think it’s a good sign that we are competing,” Nicholls coach Jonea Rima said of going five sets. “We’ve had quite a few three-set matches. I think it is a step in the right direction. Everyone had a good one stat-wise. It’s putting it all together at the end of the day.

“The fifth set is always a tricky one. It moves so fast. You have to do everything right all at once as a team. It was a tough match, but I thought the girls played pretty well. I think is quite a few areas statistically that looked pretty strong. It’s just unfortunate we didn’t pull out the win at the same time.”

A bright spot for Nicholls was the play of Gracie Campbell. The first, in only her second match back from an injury, had a career-high 28 kills.

“We had some strong defensive play, too, which I think that category has helped us out, last weekend for sure,” said Rima. “It gave us opportunities to score off the defense. I think we had some really scrappy plays. The kids are working hard.

“I think the girls did a good job of just off the hands with, blocks, blind shots, and making smart decisions. I think that’s the name of the game is playing smarter volleyball.”

The long-distance starts with a trip to San Antonio to face Incarnate Word before playing at Texas A&M-Corpus Christ on Saturday.

Being on the road is nothing new for Nicholls. The Lady Colonels played their first 10 matches away from home, so they know the routine.

“We have a practice schedule when we get to Incarnate Word on Wednesday night, so we don’t lose any practice time. It will give us an opportunity in their gym and kind of see what we are working against. It’s always hard to get off the bus to practice, but that’s just something we’ve kind of had to learn how to do this season.”

Incarnate Word is the first Southland team Nicholls will face for a second time this season. The Cardinals won 15-25, 15-25, 19-25 in Thibodaux for their first SLC win of the season. UIW is 1-6 in conference and 9-10 overall.

Allison Palmi leads UIW in kills with 191 while Risa Senia is second with 171. Natalie Kimmel paces the team with 411 assists. Kade Thomas tops the team in block assists with 53.

“I think we had our chances to win when they were here, especially the first set. I think it’s just cutting down on some of our errors and just being able to capitalize,” said Rima.

Nicholls and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi will be meeting for the first time. There is some familiarity between the teams despite not no direct competition between the two.

“They’ve been in a couple of tournaments that we’ve been at. We’ve been able to see them play a little bit,” said Rima.

Running the show for the Islanders, who are 6-1 in the SLC and 11-8 overall, is Belle Morgan. The setter has 694 assists this season.

“She’s been really dynamic for them this year,” Rima said of Morgan. “She’s a fun kid to watch play. She’s very offensive minded, so you really have to watch her and read her. If she’s not going to set her offense, she will try to get a kill for herself.”

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi has two players with more than 200 kills. Kyndal Payne leads the team with 271, while Leah Stolfus has 203.Tayah Little paces the team with 21 block assists.

“They run a faster offense. I think our blockers will have to go faster and be able to match up with their hitters a little faster,” said Rima.

Although Nicholls finally played a five-set match, it still all comes down to playing it one point at a time, according to Rima.

“We really have to grind stuff out and really want to score every time. As long as we are on the same page at the same time, I think we could be a very scary team underdog-wise and take opponents to further sets to win games. It’s just going to take us all working on the same page,” the Nicholls coach said.