Last weekend, Colgate volleyball could not sustain the momentum attained during the Colgate Classic and dropped all three of its three matches at the USF/Asics Classic in San Francisco. Eastern Washington came from two games down to beat the Raiders in five on Friday night, while the University of San Francisco and Oral Roberts each recorded three-game sweeps the following day.

The first game with Eastern Washington was a closely fought affair until late, when Colgate won six of the last eight points for a 30-25 result. In the second game, Colgate won four straight points after dropping the opener and cruised to a 30-23 win from there. However, Eastern Washington fought back in games three and four, controlling play right from the start and winning 30-18, 30-19. This set up a decisive fifth game. After Colgate and Eastern Washington went back and forth early, the Eagles won three straight points and never trailed again en route to a 15-10 win.

Sophomore Kelsea Loveless recorded her third double-double in four matches, amassing 11 digs and a team-leading 15 kills. First-year Casey Ritt had 11 kills, while senior captain Erin Kanetzke and junior Katrina Zawojski had nine and six kills respectively. First-year setter Logan Keala had 27 assists, while sophomore Meghan Fanta had 11.

Colgate returned to the court shortly after 11 a.m. PST to play the USF Dons. San Francisco went on a 9-2 run in the opening game early, which gave them a comfortable 13-5 lead. From there on, USF dominated all facets of play and beat the Raiders 30-17. USF had 14 kills in the game to just seven for the Raiders. The Dons remained just a bit too strong for the Raiders in the next two games, winning 30-19 and 30-14, respectively. Colgate finished the match with only 22 total kills.

Zawojski had eight kills to lead the Raider offense. Loveless and junior Merryl Pohl each had four kills. Fanta added 21 assists, while junior libero Jackie Adlam had 13 digs on the defensive side.

Despite Zawojski’s 14 kills against Oral Roberts, the Eagles swept the Raiders 30-23, 30-17, 30-22. The teams fought hard in the first game, but Oral Roberts went on a 7-2 run late to go up 24-18. The Eagles also used big surges early in the second and third games to open up big leads. Despite solid efforts, the Raiders could not make up the deficit in either game.

Pohl scored eight kills and Ritt added six of her own. Junior Jackie Adlam had 14 digs on defense and won a place on the all-tournament team.

The Raiders are now 2-4 on the season. The road doesn’t get much easier this weekend, as Colgate heads to Penn State for three matches. They play Virginia Commonwealth tomorrow afternoon, followed by contests against the Nittany Lions and St. John’s University on Saturday.

Still, Colgate is confident that their fortunes will improve.

“Last weekend’s matches against good teams will make [Colgate] better,” Kanetzke said.

Zawojski also echoed similar sentiments about the team.

“We have to control whatever parts of the match that we can this weekend,” Zawojski said.