Tough Going for Lady Blazers in Tourney

The Lady Blazers fell in two matches to open the Courtyard by Marriott VSU Crossover

VALDOSTA, Ga. - Valdosta State faced two strong teams from the Sunshine State Conference on Friday, the opening day of the Courtyard by Marriott VSU Crossover tournament. In the first match, VSU fell to Florida Tech, 25-17, 25-23, 25-22. In the second, the team lost to Rollins, 26-24, 25-16, 25-19.

Against Florida Tech, Ruthie King stood out. She led the team in kills and digs with 10 and six respectively. She also attacked at the highest percentage, 0.421, for Valdosta State. Lea Weber passed for 27 assists in the match while Kathrine Carter and Irene Hannan contributed on two shared blocks.

Florida Tech hit a whopping 0.560 percentage in the first set and continued to hit well throughout the match. Sacha Gumbs led the team with 15 kills while Aysha Nickels passed for 39 assists and led the team in digs with seven.

The story did not change much for the Lady Blazers in the second match of the day. In the first set, neither team hit well. Rollins hit for 0.194 and VSU hit for 0.029 in the first frame. Rollins bounced back to hit 0.458 in both the following sets to finish the sweep. Both Hannan and King killed the ball 10 times. Laura Boos joined the two to all get six digs a piece to lead the team.

Nikki Hartman ran away in kills with 18. She was the only Rollins Tar to hit double figures in kills. Lacey Malarky passed for 30 assists and Phoebe Corder gained 12 digs.

Valdosta State looks to take on the Lynn Fighting Knights and the Saint Leo Lions, two of the toughest teams the Sunshine State Conference has to offer, on Saturday at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. respectively. VSU fans can find both matches webcasted at vstateblazers.tv.

Florida Tech Box Score

Rollins Box Score

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