MOON TOWNSHIP – Robert Morris Volleyball (6-6, 1-0 Horizon League) was back at home to open up Horizon League play versus Purdue Fort Wayne (7-7, 0-1 Horizon League.
The Colonials would continue their hot play from last weekend to earn the sweep and get the win over the Mastodons to extend their winning run to three matches.
With the first win in Horizon League play Head Coach Danny Doherty spoke about his feeling towards his team and how they played tonight.
“I love this team, good, bad or indifferent. This is great to see, we had a lot of people come out and show up for this team today and I think they played unbelievable” Doherty said. “they listened to themselves, they listened to their bodies, they made moves and adjustments”.
The Colonials ended with 42 total kills with a hitting percentage of .203. RMU also had a total of eight blocks, 68 Digs and two aces on the offensive side of the ball.
RMU was once again led by Jaaliyah Evans with 12 kills, followed by Hillarie Adams with 10 and Jocelyn Jourdan with 9.
Evans has put together a stretch of 12 kills, 12 kills, and 14 kills in her last 3 games. I was able to catch up with coach Doherty about how the graduate keeps getting better throughout the season.
“She is one of my favorite human beings on this planet right now,” Doherty said. “That kid comes into the gym and she busts her butt just like everybody else, she keeps it strong and she is just light. It is a godsend that she is here with us.”
New to the program this year is Jocelyn Jourdan who has entered and made herself irreplaceable on the net front presence. The Sophomore has already had four games with double digit kills on attack and is putting together some good defensive numbers as well. Tonight she put up a stat line of nine kills and three blocks.
“[Jocelyn] is a rockstar,” Doherty said. “I have known Jo for a really long time and I am blessed to coach her now. It is an unbelievable thing that she is doing and just staying with it and staying engaged and pushing things back on them. She was a very strong blocker tonight with one per set, she was integral in making sure they were slowing down.”
Robert Morris did a good job at keeping the rallies going and holding the Mastodons to a .050 hitting percentage for the whole game and even a 0.0% for the third set. Coach Doherty gave credit to his team’s defense and the adjustments they made throughout the match.
“I think it is a mix of both. I think we are playing really good defense right now.” Doherty said. “They took a lot of risks and thankfully for us they went in our favor, we are just going to continue to set up a strong defense”.
Today’s win makes it three in a row going into conference play. It is the right time to get a streak going. Coach Doherty was able to speak upon his team getting hot at the right time.
“We have just tried to stay to ourselves and play our level, Lou Brown calls three wins in a row a winning streak so we are going to try and make four tomorrow”.
Robert Morris will be back in action tomorrow afternoon to face off against Purdue Fort Wayne in the second match of the weekend. First serve is set for 2 p.m.
