Experience wins: Trojans fall to Rattlers in four sets
Published 3:00 am Wednesday, October 12, 2016
![Photo/mike hensley The Troy Trojans fell to 6-16 on Tuesday night when they fell to the Florida A&M Rattlers in front of a large crowd at Trojan Arena. The Trojans will be back in conference play this Friday night when they host Georgia Southern.](https://www.troymessenger.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2016/10/troy-300x170.jpg)
Photo/mike hensley
The Troy Trojans fell to 6-16 on Tuesday night when they fell to the Florida A&M Rattlers in front of a large crowd at Trojan Arena. The Trojans will be back in conference play this Friday night when they host Georgia Southern.
The Trojans fell in four sets the Florida A&M Rattlers on Tuesday.
The Trojans (6-16, 0-5) and the Rattlers battled back forth all night, but in the end the Rattlers’ experience paid off with 17-25, 25-20, 21-25, 22-25 wins.
“We knew going in that Florida A&M was a good team,” said Trojans head coach Sonny Kirkpatrick. “They had some great results throughout the year. We knew that if we didn’t play the best we possibly could then it was going to be a long night. I was proud of our kids for stepping up. We had two freshmen in games two, three and four and they did a really nice job.”
All night long the two teams battled back and forth. There were a total of 21 ties and seven lead changes.
“It was two teams playing really well,” Kirkpatrick said. “It was a really entertaining match. The crowd we had was amazing, and I think they saw some pretty good volleyball.”
In set one the Rattlers went up 10-4 over the Trojans forcing Kirkpatrick to call an early timeout. The Trojans fell behind by as many as seven points in the set, but battled back and got to within four at 20-16 before the Rattlers were able to slam the door.
The Trojans jumped out in set two and took an early 10-6 lead forcing Rattler head coach Tanio Trifonov to call a timeout.
After the timeout, the Rattlers battled back to take a one-point lead at 16-15. With the game tied at 20, the Trojans rattled off five straight points to even the match at one set apiece.
The third set was a back and forth affair between the Rattlers and the Trojans. Neither team led by more than three points, until the later stages of the match when the Rattlers went on a 4-0 run to go up 20-15.
That separation was all the Rattlers needed to go up 2-1 in the match.
The Trojans jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in set four prompting the Rattlers to call an early timeout.
The Trojans led by as many as four in the match, but the Rattlers once again battled back and took the lead at 21-0 forcing Kirkpatrick to call a timeout.
The Rattlers stormed out of the timeout to take the win over the Trojans.
Landis led the Trojans in kills on the night with 15 kills, while Reina led the way in assists with 44.
The Trojans will get back into region play Friday night when they host Georgia Southern at 6 p.m.