The Elon women’s volleyball team won its first match Wednesday night against North Carolina A&T three games to zero.
Freshman Ana Nicksic started as setter this match and had 21 assists. She said she was excited to be out on the court for the first home match.
“We prepared all preseason and I’m happy I had the chance to be out there,” Nicksic said. “The energy was great. Right when the lights turned off, the adrenaline was pumping.”
Sophomore Kris Harris was a driving force at the net, playing both middle blocker and right side hitter. She had 11 kills, which was more than double the amount of any other players’ kills. Harris found most of her success in a slide attack.
“A lot of this summer, I worked on my arm swing and my approach in general,” Harris said. “Slides are one of my favorite hits. It is a good transition to the right side because (head) coach (Mary Tendler) is trying me in both middle and right side so it works for both positions.”
Nicksic said she has also been working hard to make sure she is setting to where the coaches want here to set and has been doing a lot of repositions to get in sync with the hitters.
“They have been very patient with me,” she said. “They still want me to run the offense and make the smartest decisions, which I still need a lot of work at, but they are giving me a lot of feedback and it’s been awesome.”
Elon won the first game 25-20 and the second game 25-16. The final game was tighter, but the Phoenix pulled out a 25-23 win to take the match.
Harris said what also made this first home game great was the amount of fans and it was a good start to the season.
“We have been promoting it all week and wearing our bright shirts,” she said. “But it felt good to play our first game on home court and get out there and get the season started.”
[box] The women’s volleyball team will host the Elon Phoenix Classic tournament this weekend starting with Gardner-Webb on Friday Aug. 31 at 7:00 p.m. They will also play two games on Saturday Sept. 1, the first against North Carolina Central at 12:30 p.m. and ending with Alabama at 7:00 p.m. [/box]