Pioneers Fall Twice On Opening Day Of CAC Play

Pioneers Fall Twice On Opening Day Of CAC Play- Wil Teague, Sports Information Director, 10/6/23

Game One:

CRC- 0

FC- 3

Boston, Mass.- The Lady Pioneers struggled on the court in both of today's opening doubleheader matchups which kicked off their 4-game Continental Athletic Conference weekend at Fisher College in Boston, Mass. The Pioneers fell in game one against CAC defending champions, Florida College Falcons after just three sets. Crowley's Ridge challenged the defending champs in set one as they fell by two with a score of 23-25. CRC led the set by as much as 7 points in the set after an Emi Elms kill gave CRC a (21-14) lead but CRC wouldn't be able to finish off the Falcons. With the fantastic start to the set, the Pioneers would see Florida College bust out an 11-2 run to come from behind and claim the set 25-23. In set two, the Falcons kept the big swing of energy rolling in their favor as they quickly handled the Lady Pioneers 25-12 with two more long-scoring rallies. In set three CRC rallied back as they stuck with the defending conference champs even bringing it within one, (16-17) but as the Falcons did in the two previous sets, Florida College linked together a long rally that the Pioneers wouldn't have an answer for as they claimed the match with a set 3 win of 25-17. Jillian Glasgow was the sole Pioneer who collected a double-double in the contest with 10 assists and 10 digs. Jadyn Hesse bested Glasgow in the assists category by handing out one more helper ending with 11. Emi Elms and Hannah Halverson co-led the Pioneers in kills having 5 each. 

Game Two:

CRC- 1

FNU- 3

Crowley's Ridge College took on Florida National University in their second contest of the day and immediately showed some turnaround by leading the Conquistadors in set one for almost its entirety. CRC took a demanding lead, 19-13, even forcing a FNU timeout after a big front-line block by the Pioneers but like against Florida College, CRC couldn't see the set all the way through.  When play resumed the Pioneer lead vanished as they saw the Conquistadors come back and win the opening set 25-21. After set two, CRC finally claimed their first set victory in Boston as the Pioneers found themselves leading late in the set, 21-17. FNU called a timeout in hopes of changing speed as they did in the previous set but the Lady Pioneer finally put together an entire set of action and closed out the set with a win of 25-18. CRC doomed themselves in the third set as self-inflicted errors gave the conquistadors a comfortable 5-point lead midway through the set at 15-10. Florida National would carry this gap to the end of the set as they defeated CRC 25-20, taking the advantage back to their sideline. The Pioneers fought back in the fourth set but couldn't turn the tide back in their favor as the Conquistadors defeated CRC 25-18, forcing the Pioneers to go winless on day one of the classic. Jillian Glasgow ended the contest with a consecutive double-double performance with 19 assists and 11 digs. Hannah Halverson joined Glasgow this series in the double-double category by leading the team in kills with 16 on a .400 hitting percentage and collecting 10 digs in the 4-set loss. Alexis Weirich manufactured a respectable 11 kills and Kinley Matlock led the team in digs with 17. The Pioneers look to bounce back tomorrow with their final two games scheduled for Fisher College at 7:30 a.m. and a rematch against FNU at 10:00 a.m. #GOPIONEERS