Volleyball swept on the road

Troy Athletics photo

The Troy Trojans volleyball team fell just short in both road matches against the Arkansas State Red Wolves this past weekend despite a valiant effort.

“We played with good effort until the end, you know, and just kind of didn’t execute as well as we needed to in the fifth set,” said head coach Josh Lauer in an interview with Troy Athletics. “We had two tough road losses against a good team, and now we’ve got to regroup.”

The Trojan offense struggled to hit efficiently, hitting over .250 in just two sets over the weekend.

On Thursday, Tori Hester lit up the stat sheet with a match-high 21 kills on a season high 71 attacks in a continuation of her dominant senior campaign. Hester also recorded 15 digs in her eighth double-double of the season.

Freshman middle hitter Ashlynn Axtell made her collegiate debut for Troy and tallied three blocks and two kills in her first five sets of play.

Libero Jaci Mesa tied her career-high with a match leading 23 digs in Troy’s narrow reverse-sweep 3-2 defeat.

Outside hitters Amiah Butler, Kalina Calvillo and Olivia Kwiatkowski all registered double-digit kills, albeit rather inefficiently.

Friday’s rematch saw a similar 3-2 outcome with continued efficiency issues for the Trojans as they hit .179 in the match as a team.

Hester, who is seventh in Division I volleyball in kills per set, tacked on another 19 kills for the Trojans in match two.

Breakout freshman Calvillo crushed 17 kills and Axtell added three blocks and four kills in her second match as a Trojan.

Mesa one-upped her previous performance with a new career best of 24 digs in Troy’s second five-set defeat of the series.

Troy will look to get back into the win column as it takes on the floundering ULM Warhawks who are winless in Sun Belt Conference play on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at 6 p.m. in the Trojan Arena.