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Curtis Meyer reporter
It is about halfway through the season for the Pitt State Gorillas, and things have not panned out as they hoped before the season. Sitting at 6-13, Pitt State sits just one up from the bottom spot of the MIAA rankings, just ahead of the Newman Jets, who have yet to win a conference game.
“We had another one where we had some struggles, I felt like we could have went and won both of them. I didn’t feel like either team was gonna be that much better than us if we could stick to our gameplan and execute and stick to our errors but that error bug bit us again. We just could not put runs of points back-to-back,” said head coach Jen Gomez.
Pitt State began their week at Missouri Western, facing the Griffons. Pitt State got off to a slow start and never really recovered, losing 25-14 in the first set. It didn’t get much better, as they lost 25-13 and 25-16 in the next sets in the 0-3 loss.
Junior outside hitter Seville Gates paced the Gorillas with eight kills, while junior setter Jadyn Jackson had a team leading 11 assists and eight digs in the loss. Junior outside hitter Ivy Fink gathered seven digs and sophomore libero Josie McCroskey finished with six digs.
“Obviously, we’re a pretty new team, we only have two people on the court who have played consistently and that just goes to show sometimes. We’re slightly inexperienced compared to some of those other MIAA teams, I think that everything is there, but we just have to figure out how to put it together and that’s been our struggle,” said Gates.
It was a short turnaround for Pitt State, as they traveled to play the Northwest Missouri Bearcats at three o’clock on Saturday. The Gorillas struggles continued, as they lost 25-18, 25-16, and 25-19. The Gorillas were in all three games but seemed to be unable to string any sort of run together, getting swept for the season by the Bearcats.
Senior outside hitter Janae Thurston led Pitt State with seven kills, while Jackson chipped in with 18 assists and 12 digs. McCroskey rounded out the team with nine digs.
“It’s obviously pretty frustrating, it feels bad letting our seniors down like this. But we have to remember as a team that we still have half of our conference play left, so there’s definitely time to get back into that conference tournament,” said Gates.
With a little over half of their season finished, Pitt State is still in position to pull themselves back into contention, but it will take a lot of winning. Each game suddenly magnifies in importance, especially this coming week as the Gorillas look to break the losing streak.
“There’s still nine conference games left and there’s a lot that can happen. I have to tell my team that and have to get them to believe that anything is possible if you just keep working. At some point you have to put your foot on the gas pedal and just have to go,” said Gomez.
Pitt State will prepare to take on the Newman Jets, who are yet to win a conference game. They will face the Jets on Tuesday, away.