The Atlantic 10 tournament is now down a team after the first squad fell victim to the Colonials Friday afternoon in the quarterfinals.
GW ran a tired and lackluster VCU squad out of the Smith Center in a three-set sweep Friday afternoon, advancing to the semifinals against top-seed Dayton Saturday. Set scores were 25-16, 25-16 and 25-18.
Junior middle blocker Chidima Osuchukwu was a trailblazer for the Colonials, pacing the offensive drive with 16 kills and three blocks (one solo, two assists). GW controlled the first two sets, and battled it out with VCU in a seesaw third set, eventually coming out on top. Senior setter Jordan Timmer ran a fast-paced offense and the Colonials worked tirelessly to find the holes amidst a scrambling defense and focused on minimizing errors.
Head coach Amanda Ault was proud of the way her team executed a clean gameplan, finishing with only 11 attack errors to VCU’s 20 and no service errors.
“We spent a great deal of time this past week on serving, not only going aggressive but changing our mentality to give ourselves the opportunity to score a point,” Ault said. “We also talked about minimizing unforced errors, with attacking errors and blocking errors, and I think we stayed on top of that throughout the night.”
With a roaring home crowd, GW opened up to a 7-2 lead after beginning the first set with a 4-0 run. Right of the bat, VCU was forced to use its first timeout, attempting to regroup as the Colonials were finding huge gaps in the middle of the floor and landing kills without opposition.
Senior libero Maddy Doyle helped settle the back line with back-to-back digs to keep the ball in play, stirring confusion on the VCU side of the net. Forcing an attack error, GW took the point after a long rally, moving to a 11-3 lead. Both teams traded points as VCU got some steam and put together a string of three kills to bring the game to 15-9.
With fast feet on the defensive side of the ball and quick decision-making from Timmer, GW extended its lead to 10 at 21-11. After VCU called another timeout, the Rams got the ball rolling, capitalizing on a blocking error and a ball handling error. The Colonials quickly countered, though, as sophomore outside hitter Aaliya Davidson knocked down a kill right through the hands of a defender. GW reached another 10-point advantage at set point, and closed out the set with a decisive kill.
“We were extremely prepared, from scouting to our mindset, we were very focused,” Osuchukwu said. “We all had one goal in mind and we wanted to be as efficient as possible.”
Even after a lopsided first set, VCU did not fold coming out into the second. GW took its first lead at 4-3 and a mini-run for each team made it 7-6 GW before Davidson stifled a VCU advance with a pounding kill to begin a hot stretch for the Colonials.
When GW’s lead had grown to 20-12, the Rams took another timeout to look for an answer to the versatile Colonials attack, which was then coming sharply from the pins and straight down the center. They could not find one, and freshman outside hitter Hanna Justesen knocked a kill to close out the set after an impressive fingertip-save at the net.
The last set was the tightest, with GW and VCU going back and forth until the Rams tied the score at 14 all. It was the furthest they had been able to stay with the Colonials in any set, but they could go no further.
GW outscored VCU 11-4 down the stretch to close out the sweep.
Even though the Colonials faced a season with ups and downs, Osuchukwu said that tonight showed how much the team has learned from its losses. Working on serve-receive and blocking in practice this week payed off, according to the middle blocker.
“I think we did a good job of setting the tone and executing offensively, defensively and from the service line,” Ault said. “We are at home tomorrow, this is what it’s all about, and we just need to keep that focus for Dayton.”
First serve between the Colonials and Flyers is set for 5 p.m. at the Smith Center.
