Roosevelt Opens Season With Split At Clarke

DUBUQUE, Iowa – Roosevelt's season-opening trip ended Tuesday with the Lakers splitting a pair of matches in Dubuque, Iowa at a tri-match hosted by Clarke University.

The season began on a rough note for the Lakers after they dropped the opening match against Waldorf in straight sets, 25-16, 25-19, 25-17. However, they bounced back to take down the hosts in four sets by scores of 25-11, 13-25, 25-19, 25-13. The victory was Roosevelt's first win over Clarke in program history, having lost in their previous four matchups with the Pride.

The Lakers looked a bit nervy against Waldorf with errors haunting Roosevelt's chances of keeping pace with the Warriors. Roosevelt recorded a sub-.100 hitting percentage in the match and committed 32 errors, including seven from the service line. Junior Viktoria Marysheva paced the Lakers offense with 11 kills and senior Emily DeBlecourt added seven kills of her own. Zoe Hutchinson led the team with 14 assists, followed closely by Isa Grana, who assisted on 13 kills in her first collegiate match.

Waldorf took some of the wind out of Roosevelt's sails in the first set with a 6-1 run that helped the Warriors build a 14-8 advantage. It quickly grew to 19-11 before the Lakers' comeback fizzled out at 23-16. The second set started off strong for the Lakers as they matched the Warriors point-for-point before a 9-0 run with four Roosevelt errors ripped the set open for Waldorf. Roosevelt then lost eight of the first nine points in the third set before succumbing to defeat.

Yet the fight was strong for the Lakers as they took a few hours off to shake off the disappointment and come back against Clarke. Roosevelt's offense was much stronger with 42 kills while the defense forced 30 errors from the Pride. Hutchinson orchestrated the attack with 25 assists while Grana added 12 of her own. Meanwhile, Marysheva smashed down 12 kills and freshman Yuliia Shchepkina used her powerful offense to smack nine kills in her second collegiate match.

The first two sets were the inverse of each other as Roosevelt feasted on five errors from Clarke in a critical 6-0 spurt to cruise to an easy win in the first set. In the second set, it was the Lakers' turn to commit costly miscues as their nine errors allowed the Pride to quickly even the match. However, the best of Roosevelt came out in the final two sets as the Lakers combined for 29 kills to just seven errors for a .324 hitting percentage in overwhelming the Pride to seal the match.

It was a team effort in the third set to help put away Clarke with DeBlecourt and freshman Joana Rafols coming up with back-to-back kills to put some distance between the teams in the middle of the set. After a rally from the Pride to tie the set at 17, five different players recorded a kill to help the Lakers win eight of the last 10 points in the set. The momentum carried over into the fourth set when DeBlecourt spiked three kills in a six-point stretch to jumpstart Roosevelt to win seven of eight points and take a commanding 21-10 lead.

Roosevelt will be off the next week before it starts its final year in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference with its home opener against Judson at 7 p.m. on August 30 at the Goodman Center.