Sam Houston State volleyball had a rough weekend at home, dropping two matches to conference opponents. SHSU failed to finish off the McNeese State Cowgirls in game one of Saturday’s Southland Conference match, and eventually SHSU fell in four games 30-27, 28-30, 30-17 and 30-28.The Kats jumped out to an early lead in game one, but their own mistakes gave the Cowgirls the momentum they needed to surge ahead.”The first game is always important. It’s a momentum builder for the next game to the next game to the next game,” SHSU assistant coach Tracie Bendele said. “It was heartbreaking that we couldn’t finish. We had them 27-23 and they came back and beat us. The girls got a little down, but that’s something they have to be able to rebound from.”Sartain led the Kats with 16 kills, while Dana Jefferson and Chrissy Engle added 12 and 11 kills each, respectively.The Cowgirls were led by Angie Eppers’ 17 kills and Marquita Williams’ 16 kills and three solo blocks. Angela Brittain added 12 kills for McNeese, which is now 4-1 in conference play. On Friday night, SHSU fell to the Lamar Lady Cardinals in four games 30-23, 30-24, 26-30 and 30-21.The Kats own errors seemed to spell disaster for the team as they were taking on the conferences hottest team. Gray said the Kats needed top calm down and play the way they know how.”It’s like Chrissy said ‘My adrenaline was just pumping so much coach,'” Gray said. “Well you gotta contain that a little bit. We talked about that. I know they’re young; it’s just all so brand new. I told them during the time out, you freshmen are no longer freshmen, you’ve played long enough not to be a freshmen and there are no freshmen out there today.”Sam Houston was led by Engle, who picked up 12 kills while Sartain added 11.The Cardinals had three players with double-digit kills. Natalie Sarver tallied 15 kills while Alison Tuttle and Shandra Zickler added 14 and 12, respectively.Gray said the team needs to have more consistency in their play.”It’s hard to deal with that, it’s hard to coach that,” she said “I told them It’s not fair to everybody out there, one minute you’re sticking it to the floor, next things you’re sticking it to the wall. I guess it’s the youth.”After dropping two important matches over the weekend, Bendele said the Kats have to find a way to rebound before taking on Texas Arlington on Saturday. “We have to have a big bounce back,” she said. “We just have the one game against UTA next Saturday so we should have a good four days of practice during the week. It’s not a question of our physical ability; I think it’s a mental game. Whatever team wants it the most is going to take it and that’s what we need to work on.”
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