Gaston College shows improve in doubleheader against Bob Jones University

Gaston College's beach volleyball program showed improvement in Wednesday's doubleheader against Bob Jones University.

After losing 5-0 in the opener, the Rhinos fell 4-1 in the nightcap with a pair of three-set defeats.

"The second match was a lot closer," Gaston College coach Rachel Noreika said. "In the first match, we made too many errors across the board to be competitive, and it's frustrating when we play teams that we are right there with, and our errors are making the difference."

After the loss in the opener, Noreika switched some of the pairings and got the fourth win of the season from the No. 1 pairing of Naomi Hilliard and Cristina Rotola in a come-from-behind 18-21, 22-20, 15-8 victory.

The No. 3 pairing of Millea Styles and Bianca Bowland and No. 4 pairing of Carli Phillips and Kristy Seifert lost heartbreakers by 25-23, 18-21, 11-15 and 21-16, 14-21, 14-16 scores, respectively.

"In the second dual, I mixed up a couple of the pairs because I wanted to see how they played together," Noreika said. "The No. 1 picking up a win was awesome, but losing the No. 3 and No. 4 was tough because losing leads in those sets was frustrating.
"We have got to get tougher mentally and do a better job of making adjustments in real time and making fewer errors.
"In general, though, it was good to improve from the first dual to the second."

Gaston College returns to action on Friday with matches at Catawba College against the host team and Region 10 rival Wake Tech.

A win over "Wake Tech should cement our fourth place in the conference going into the conference championship," Noreika said of the upcoming Region 10 championships to be held April 7 at Sandhills Community College. "And next Wednesday, we will play St. Andrews here in a doubleheader at 2 p.m. that will be our last match before the Region 10 championship."