The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga volleyball team had its chances Wednesday night.
The Mocs just didn’t take advantage of enough of them.
UTC lost 3-1 to Middle Tennessee State University at Maclellan Gym to fall to 4-7 this season, with weekend road matches against Louisville and Kentucky set to wrap up the nonconference schedule. MTSU won the first two sets, 25-22 and 25-23, before the Mocs won the third 25-23, but the Blue Raiders wrapped things up by winning the fourth 25-22.
Mikaela Gauthreaux led the Mocs with 15 kills, and Gylian Finch (12), Dani Szczepanski (11) and Emily Plumlee (10) also finished in double figures. Jaquelyn Langhaim added 49 assists and 12 digs, but the Blue Raiders had 15 blocks and the Mocs gave away 16 points – six in reception errors, 10 in service errors.
“Those are just points that MTSU has to do nothing,” UTC coach Travis Filar said. “That right there is going to put you behind the eight-ball a lot of times, more than not. That’s the only volleyball component – taking care of the simplest of things, such as the serve/pass game. After that it’s finding a way to fight when ahead, fight when behind. Give credit to MTSU; they did that and we didn’t enough tonight.
“We did at times, but we didn’t enough.”
The Mocs jumped took a 7-1 lead in the first set and didn’t trail until an attack error by Langhaim made it 21-20. The Mocs quickly retook the lead on kills by Szczepanski and Miranda Elpers, but the Blue Raiders (4-6) won four of the next five points to close out the first.
MTSU led 16-11 early in the second before the Mocs rallied, cutting the lead to 19-18 on a Finch service ace. The lead never grew to more than two points, but MTSU’s Taylor Hammill and Julia Valdez paired up for a block of a Finch kill attempt to end the set.
The Mocs rallied to take the third set, with Emily Plumlee recording five kills in the frame. Gauthreaux and Ally Ford each had three kills, with back-to-back kills by Szczepanski breaking a 23-all tie. UTC led late in the fourth, including at 20-16, but the Blue Raiders scored nine of the final 11 points to end the match.
“Our fight has got to be greater than our fear,” Filar said. “I think that’s where this team is really trying to find its way. I don’t think it’s a volleyball thing. I didn’t think it was a volleyball thing last year – I thought it was a lack of mentality, a lack of toughness, and I thought we fixed that, so it’s disappointing because I see us in phases of that match dictating the flow and the tempo of play.
“To come away from that match losing by a total of eight points is tough.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.