Eagles Turn in 1-1 Performance on Saturday

By Mike DeVader, Reinhardt Director of Athletic Communications & Media

MARIETTA, Ga. – Reinhardt volleyball headed just to the south to play a pair of games at Life (Ga.) on Saturday and came away with a split after rebounding against the Running Eagles (26-24, 25-18, 25-16) after falling to Cumberland (Tenn.) in four sets – 25-14, 25-27, 17-25, 21-25.
 
Both the Eagles' losses have now come on neutral floors, but they bounced right back against the host school to improve to 7-2 on the year.
 
"Today had its ups and downs," head coach Brian Goodhind said. "We had a tough loss to Cumberland. Cumberland is a team we very much respect; it's players and staff. I know after beating them in Kentucky, and how we dominated set one – that a solid coach, like they have, would make adjustments. They shut down our outsides and made an effort to play low-error volleyball, which turned out to be the key to beating us. Statistically, we out-scored team; we average 16.12 points per set and they only average 14. Unfortunately, we averaged 10.1 errors per set and they only averaged seven. Our errors were something as a team our girls fought to overcome but we weren't able to claw back enough to win a very close match. With an average line like, statistically you usually win that match, so I think we just need our girls to value the lessons we learn from that loss.
 
The Life match was going to have a rough start no matter what. As a coach, I knew after a tough loss that Life had a huge opportunity to grab set one. They did what they should have done, which was create high-energy on their side and try and run some quick tempo plays against us. Our girls just tried to play safe in the beginning, after the loss, which led to an early hole that we grinded to get out of. I have to give a lot credit to our assistant coach, Charles Shearer. He is in charge of charting the other team's offense and making our blocking calls before every play. Life's offense was beating us pretty bad and his adjustments mid-game really helped us get our claws back into that first set. A huge shout out goes to our entire team; they just suddenly started to really get after it and fight hard. Great energy from our bench and on the court. Great senior leadership from Cheetara Bing, senior outside, as she really helped freshman Courtney Pressley play level-headed by instilling her with a lot of confidence. Lastly, I have to recognize our men's volleyball team; almost the entire team came and they were hands down the loudest people in a completely packed away gym! Their energy was huge tonight…Thank you, guys. I will say this; I was proud of our team for persevering after a tough loss. That's going to be valuable down the road. To God go all The Glory."
 
The Phoenix indeed flipped the script on the Eagles from the first match of the year, but had to do so in come-from-behind fashion after dropping the first set by 11. Both teams went back and forth on the scoreboard in the second stanza as Reinhardt fought back multiple times to regain the advantage – including scoring three points in-a-row after facing set point at 24-22. Cumberland immediately did the same thing to Reinhardt at 25-24, netting three-consecutive tallies to tie the game at 1-1.
 
The Eagles scored to open set three but fell behind early and often in the stanza after the Phoenix went on multiple runs to pull away from the hometown team. Reinhardt put together a string of three-consecutive scores at the end, but couldn't fight all the way back. Cumberland was able to notch the winning set after both teams left it all out on the court in a hard-fought battle.
Carlee Baxter had a double-double with 26 assists and 14 digs.
 
Scoring Leaders Against Cumberland
Kills       Savanna Davis (14), Courtney Pressley (9), Shelby Glawson (7)
Aces      Carlee Baxter (2), Tessa Colden (2), Erinn Marroquin (2)
Blocks   Brittany Taksas (5), Cheetara Bing (2), Shelby Glawson (1)
Assists  Carlee Baxter (26), Erinn Marroquin (18), Mar Vives (6)
Digs       Mar Vives (16), Carlee Baxter (14), Tessa Colden (12)
 
Baxter would have another double-double in game two with 20 assists and 13 digs as the Eagles earned a victory over Life. Tessa Colden also joined the double-double club against the Running Eagles with 13 digs and 11 kills. Courtney Pressley had 14 kills to lead the offense as it hit a cumulative .200 in the evening matchup.
 
Mar Vives led the way for the second time in digs with 23.
 
The Running Eagles did all they could to steal set one with a 5-0 start and a 7-1 lead before the Eagles began to chip away at their deficit. A string of five-straight points midway through the stanza gave the visitors the lead for the majority of the remaining plays, but Life scratched across three points back-to-back-to-back to tie the game at 24-24.
 
Reinhardt, however, ended the stanza with a kill and the game-winning point on an error by the Running Eagles.
 
Two big runs in set two kept Reinhardt out in front of the host school and helped the Eagles prevail and head to the final set with the confidence to close out the match. More of the same kind of effort was shown in stanza three, as Reinhardt opened up an 11-2 cushion and cruised to the finish line the rest of the way.
 
Scoring Leaders Against Life
Kills       Courtney Pressley (14), Tessa Colden (11), Savanna Davis (5)
Aces      Sophia Graziano (2), Mar Vives (2), Carlee Baxter (1)
Blocks   Shelby Glawson (4), Isabelle Breitbarth (2), Courtney Pressley (2)
Assists  Carlee Baxter (20), Erinn Marroquin (15), Mar Vives (4)
Digs       Mar Vives (23), Carlee Baxter (13), Tessa Colden (13)
 
The Yellow Jackets of Allen (S.C.) are up next as they visit the Brown Athletic Center for a conference bout at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
 
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For more information on Reinhardt Women's Volleyball, please click here.