 "Photo: Volleyball vs William & Mary by Jeremy Bauer-Wolf/The Towerlight")
While the weekend produced another set of losses for the Tigers, 3-0 to William & Mary Friday and 3-0 to Virginia Commonwealth Saturday, it also ended in a career milestone for Missy Rohrbaugh, who recorded the 1000th career dig in Saturday’s first set.
At one point during the third set of Saturday’s game, Towson’s Amanda Halls provided a kill to bring the score to 23-19 in favor of VCU. Towson made a comeback to tie up the score at 24-24. From there the scoring went back and forth between the teams until VCU finally won the third set 30-28. During that time of trying to clinch the win, there were five tied scores and four lead changes.
The two seniors on the team finished off their last two home games on a strong note. Alysha Fanning finished with 10 kills and 10 digs. In her milestone weekend, Rohrbaugh finished with three total attacks, 33 digs and one serve ace. She became the 13th player in Towson history to go over the 1,000-dig landmark.
“This game was momentum driven,” head coach Paul Koncir said about Saturday’s game. “[Senior Night] allows us to focus on something else rather than just the game.”
The main difference in Saturday’s game play as opposed to other games, especially the third set, was the fact that the team stayed close and didn’t leave much room for error.
“We didn’t allow a big break,” Koncir said. “We stayed close together and worked to make a breakthrough.”
In terms of the team’s progress for the rest of the season, it comes down to being as simple as physically recovering from the numerous injuries and staying consistent.
“Our group needs to get a little healthier,” Koncir said. “We’re [also] playing within ourselves. We need to get our confidence and stamina back because the battle is within ourselves. I’m hoping to pass one or two more teams in the rankings before we’re done.”
As for the team’s overall future in the years to come, it’s as basic as everyone needing to step up their game and fit in to a bigger role.
“Everyone has to step up tremendously,” Koncir said. “It’ll be a big challenge this year and then the next year even more. The freshmen have more of a natural growth. We’re going to be making a lot of improvements.”
For the two seniors on this year’s team, Koncir only had praise for them. His only regret is that they won’t be there to see what this team might accomplish.
“They’ve put in a lot of work and patience. They deserve how they’re playing,” he said. “It’s a shame they’re leaving because they’re very important pieces to this team. But we’ll see in the years to come how a bigger senior class changes us.”
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