Despite a valiant try, the Warhawks lost to the Georgia State Panthers in Friday night’s home Sun Belt opener at Fant-Ewing Coliseum. 

Freshman Jennifer McClendon from Destrenhan, Louisiana, was one of the most proficient players of the match. 

She had a total of six kills on eight swings and no errors bringing her hit average to .750.

Right there with her was sophomore Kaitlyn Shearer. 

The Killeen, Texas native had seven kills on 11 swings for a .575 hit average.

The Warhawks (6-9,0-2 Sun Belt)  played a tough first set (17-25) then went to battle in the second tying the set point before losing the advantage and the set (24-26).

They rallied back for the third set but were overtaken (25-16) and lost the match to the Panthers (3-8, 1-1 Sun Belt).

Sophomore Taylor Zaeske contributed eight kills, six digs and an ace for the Warhawks.

Sophomore Hope Pawlick turned in seven kills on 16 hits from the outside.

Freshman Baileigh Hoffman, setter for the Warhawks, had 23 assists and four digs.

Senior Marcela Araya from San Jose, Costa Rica, said the mindset of the players contributed to the loss. 

“Our energy is really inconsistent. That’s our main problem. We need to fix our consistency and energy because we can win sets. When we get to that point we will win games, but we need to focus more,” Araya said.

Head coach Patrick Hiltz agreed that the issues in the match were mental. 

Hiltz believes they didn’t look like they we’re mentally prepared to play.

“The game plan we had talked about and everybody was on board with never really showed up in what we were doing and we were playing from behind the whole time,” Hiltz said

The Warhawks will play Georgia Southern University Friday, September 26, at 7:00 p.m. in Fant-Ewing Coliseum.