by Alicia Gibson
Assistant Features Editor
The University of La Verne men’s volleyball team traveled to the University of California, Santa Barbara and fell in three straight games 15-7, 15-12 and 15-9 last Friday.
“They were all close games, [and] we played well,” said senior setter Morgan Coberly. “Offensively, it was our best match played this season.”
The loss dropped their record to 1-6 early in the season, but ULV is ranked No. 2 in the nation in Division III.
“Our record should begin to improve because we will start playing more Division III teams,” senior Ryan Allen.
The Leopards were led by freshman Alex Lienert with 18 kills and junior Sean Douglas with 14 kills and 10 digs.
ULV hosted the Princeton Tigers, an eastern powerhouse, in its first home match of the season Jan. 26.
The Leopards began game one with a huge kill by Allen, but strong blocking put Princeton on the board first. Allen finished with six kills for the match.
Lack of intensity and unforced errors by ULV cost them game one by a score of 15-6. The Leopards were slow beginning game one with six errors.
La Verne finished with 31 hitting errors to only 44 kills and a .111 hitting percentage.
The Leopards also committed 17 serving errors.
Game two was almost identical to the first game, leaving the Leopards down two games. The Tigers were just too strong offensively and defensively on the net, not allowing La Verne to gain any control. The score was again 15-6.
“Our effort is simply embarrassing,” said head coach Jack Coberly.
La Verne started the third game off a bit differently than the first two-fired up. The Leopards’ enthusiasm and intensity allowed them to compete in game three. The Leopards remained strong, leading 13-10, but without the ability to hold on and put the game away, Princeton came back to win 15-13.
“We suffer from guys not putting out the effort, or not caring,” said coach Coberly.
The Leopards were led by Morgan Coberly with 44 assists and Lienert with 11 kills. Sean Douglas added nine kills and four blocks and Chris Peterson finished with eight kills.
“We started getting our serves in and cut down on our unforced errors,” said Morgan Coberly.
“We can play at a high level but don’t always play intelligent. We need to change things up. When we play smart, we have the talent,” said coach Coberly.
La Verne plays tomorrow night at CSU San Bernardino at 7.
