Volleyball searching for first win

In their first matches of the season in the Oland Centre gym, the X-Women volleyball team couldn’t find a way to get a victory, losing 3-0 to Cape Breton on Saturday and 3-2 to Dalhousie on Sunday.

Saturday’s game was the X-Women’s “Serve Up a Cure” game in support of breast cancer research. Unfortunately, StFX lost in straight sets (25-14, 25-22, 25-18) to the Capers. The X-Women made 26 errors over the course of the match and were unable to shut down Cape Breton’s Vanessa St. Georges who had 10 kills and 13 points. Katherine Ryan had 12 kills for the X-Women.

The X-Women were able raise $500 for breast cancer research from their fundraising efforts.

Sunday’s game against the Dalhousie Tigers was all about defense. There were multiple rallies over the course of the match that saw some outstanding defensive plays from both teams. The X-Women came up just short in this one, losing by just two points in the fifth set (25-15, 18-25, 25-22, 24-26, 16-14).

It was an up-and-down affair that saw the Tigers take the first set, StFX win the second, Dalhousie take the third, the X-Women winning a narrow fourth and then Dalhousie closing out the final set.

A handful of X-Women had a productive afternoon. Ryan led the way for the X-Women again with 21 points (21 kills, 19 digs), while Steph Bullock had 15.5 points (14 kills, 12 digs, 1 block) and Laura Machowski had 13.5 points (11 kills, 2 aces, 21 digs). Heather Isenor picked up 46 assists and an ace.

The X-Women will hit the road this weekend for their first away games of the season. They will travel to Moncton on Saturday night and then play UPEI on Sunday in search of that elusive first win.