UT fails to pick up a win in the Rocket Invitational

The Toledo Rockets volleyball team dropped all three matches at the Rocket Invitational this past weekend facing off against Bradley, Green Bay and Youngstown State.

The Rockets started off the Invitational in the opening game Friday, losing the first match to Bradley in five sets (25-15, 17-25, 18-25, 27-25, 17-15).

“It was a tough loss,” said Head Coach Greg Smith. “Any loss is a tough loss, but with Bradley, we were right there with them.”

Sophomore Saige Thomas led the way against the Braves, tallying a career-high 18 kills for an attacking percentage of .250.

The Rockets dropped the first set before storming back to win the next two sets. They carried that momentum into a closely-contested fourth set, which they eventually lose, 27-25. The later points in sets would plague Toledo throughout the weekend.

“We played well up until the critical points or the last five points of a set,” Smith said. “We’ve got to experience how to finish out those sets.”

The Rockets took a 6-1 lead in the fifth and final set, only to let the Braves come back to win the set and the match, 17-15.

Toledo returned to the court later that afternoon looking for a better result against Green Bay, but would fall to the Phoenix three sets to one (25-20, 25-22, 22-25, 25-23).

Junior Mary O’Connor led the team with 15 kills; Sophomore Rachel Vidourek had ten kills and led the team with a .500 attacking percentage.

The Rockets displayed a balanced attack all weekend but struggled closing out sets when it mattered the most.

“We see what we can do,” Smith said. “We’ve just got to carry it out on a consistent basis. There’s a lot of good play going on, we just couldn’t put it together at one time.

“We executed well in almost every aspect of the game but the other teams were a little more experienced than we were.”

The third and final match of the Invitational was more of the same, as the Rockets dropped three straight sets to Youngstown State (25-13, 26-24, 26-24). Vidourek was once again the team’s top performer, accumulating 11 kills with a .579 attacking percentage.

Toledo went down in the first set 15-5 and was never able to recover, losing the set decisively.

The next two sets UT took a late lead, but weren’t able to capitalize, once again showing a lack of experience.

“It was in our favor to take care of business,” Smith said. “We just have to learn how to handle it better and have more confidence.”

Still, Smith is optimistic about some of the things he saw over the weekend.

“We played some really good volleyball,” he said. “We’re definitely a better team than last year’s. This whole tournament was a good learning experience on where we’re at and where we need to go.”

One takeaway from the tournament was the individual performance of Vidourek who was named to the all-tournament team.

“It’s huge for [Vidourek] because she was out for all of spring ball,” Smith said. “She didn’t touch a ball since the end of the season in November because of a knee injury. To see her hardly get any reps and come in and start clicking this weekend and play as well as she did, it’s huge for her confidence.”

Toledo travels to Chicago next weekend to play Depaul, Eastern Illinois and Evansville at the Depaul Invitational. The tournament will last two days with the opening day being Friday, Sept. 4 and concluding Saturday, Sept. 5.