Friday night marked the opening of Atlantic 10 conference play and the two teams who showed up to the Smith Center were ready for a dogfight. The four set match was a point-for-point battle that junior middle blocker Chidima Osuchukwu said boiled down to one thing: “determination.”
So after a first set victory put the Colonials in control, the Patriots came back to take the second set hitting .367. But with production from the outside hitters and consistency from the veteran inside, GW recovered in the next two sets and got the first win of the A-10 season. Set scores were 25-19, 20-25, 25-15 and 25-21.
The Colonials had an aggressive attack strategy to open play, approaching the net with solid swings, finding holes on the outside and reacting to the Patriots’ moves on the floor. After an attack error tied the match at 10-10, Osuchukwu hammered back with a piercing attack right over the heads of the Patriots’ front line. For the remainder of the set, GW retained the lead and garnered a few points by getting the team out of system from the service line.
“To get teams out of system, our strategy is serving really tough, so they only have one option or so they can’t get good passes,” Osuchukwu said. “We were being aggressive on the service line and and setting a good ball so they couldn’t hit around.”
In the second set, George Mason started with momentum, shooting out to an early 7-4 lead. Even though GW fought back to an 8-8 draw, the Patriots extended their lead by capitalizing on seven attack errors. Head coach Amanda Ault said her players had the right mentality, but wanted them to focus on tightening up the block moving forward. She preached an aggressive mentality on the floor.
“If you have the swing, take it,” Ault said she told them.
The Colonials took her advice in the third. GW’s outside hitters got into rhythm to open play and tallied three straight points, two off ball handling errors from George Mason to go up 11-8. The double-block was also a main feature, as duos of freshman middle blocker Alexis Lete and senior middle blocker Maggie Skjelbred and Osuchukwu and senior setter Jordan Timmer were both able to penetrate the net to force some errors. Freshman outside hitter Hanna Justesen and Osuchukwu also showed off their offensive prowess with back-to-back kills to close out the set.
Three Colonials finished the match with double-digit kills: Osuchukwu led the pack with 19, Skjelbred followed with 12 and Justesen notched 11.
“We’ve talked about in preseason how we’ve been up and down and I feel like we were pretty consistent all the way through,” Ault said. “Even in the fourth set, it was point for point, but when I looked out there I saw confidence on the floor. We are taking good steps.”
Sophomore outside hitter Aaliya Davidson broke a 16-16 draw in the fourth set and was all over the ball to finish it out, swinging into the back row and then putting away an overpassed kill.
With freshmen also coming in and making impact, Ault prizes the team’s versatility and is not worried about switching up lineups. She is confident in the consistency of veteran players such as Osuchukwu and senior libero Maddy Doyle to instill calmness and set the tempo on the floor, a task Osuchukwu relishes.
“I feel like whenever I go into the game, I carry the responsibility on my shoulders that I have to impact the team as much as I can,” Osuchukwu said. “I have to do my job no matter what. I think I have to be the person to ignite some sort of confidence or some sort of spark in the team, so that’s what I try to do every time I go out there.”
The Colonials return to action next Friday to take on conference rival VCU in Richmond. First serve is set for 7 p.m.
