Freshman Mcletchie thrives, volleyball loses five straight

Malinka Walters

Contributing Writer

Volleyball succumbed to a five-game losing streak last weekend in a home loss to George Mason University on Oct. 4 and a road loss to Liberty University on Oct. 6.

Freshman outside hitter Sahbria McLetchie performed well despite the two consecutive losses. In the two games combined, McLetchie had a total of 39 kills and four blocks. Against Liberty, she had 22 of 43 kill attempts giving her a hitting average of .349 in the game with only seven recorded swinging errors.

Standing 5-foot-10, McLetchie surpassed the record for most kills by a freshman at VCU since 2007; she has reached double digits for kills in eight of her last 10 games, with a current average of 4.75 kills per set in the last three matches. Head coach Jody Rogers spoke highly of the freshman’s play.

Along with McLetchie, sophomore middle blocker Jane Fedderson grounded some kills of her own with a total of 19 kills and three blocks combined, both players totalling 79 assists from redshirt-freshman setter Indigo Thompson.

“Sahbria Mcletchie and Rebekah Strange played well for us tonight, but we couldn’t string points together, couldn’t get any runs going,” Rogers said.

On the defensive side, sophomore Rebekah Strange and redshirt-freshman Tori Pearce contributed their joint share of 29 digs against Mason with Strange accumulating 13 digs of her own against Liberty.

Collaboratively, the Rams did fall short as they suffered two tough losses. However, there were some key moments from both matchups.

During Sunday’s match against George Mason, Feddersen helped build up a 10-3 quick lead with her dominating three kills in a four-play span during the fourth set. It took Mason some time to get it going, but they were able to get their points back with a 9-3 burst to pull within 13-12 and later took a 17-16 lead from a hard kill from Jordan Glass.

It was back and forth between the Rams and the Patriots, until three well-swung kills were displayed by Mason’s Lola Owokoniran and Martin, along with an ace by Montana Green that pulled the Patriots to victorious 25-23 win over the Rams. The final scores of the four well-played sets were 18-25, 25-19, 25-21, 25-23.

As for the Liberty match, the Lady Rams led the second set 18-17, but with sturdy blocks and a nasty kill, the Flames took the 3-0 lead. VCU managed to tighten up and hold a tie score at 21-21 on an ace by McLetchie, but a series of blocks, kills and a finishing ace caused the Rams to fall short of a win. The final scores were 19-25, 22-25 and 22-25.

“We came out a little flat tonight and Liberty was ready,” Rogers said. “But we got some people back in the lineup tonight, and our focus now is getting ready to jump back into conference play Saturday.”