FAMU good enough for victory

By Heath A. Smith, DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

When it comes to conference play Florida A&M women's volleyball coach Tony Trifonov is not just looking for his team to win. With 91 consecutive MEAC victories heading into Wednesday's game against rival Bethune-Cookman, winning is not always good enough.

The Rattlers cruised to a 30-24, 30-14, 30-18 victory in their conference-opener, improving to 3-5 on the season. The game was aired on ESPNU in front of a crowd of almost 600 people at Gaither Gymnasium.

“We didn't play as well as I wanted them to play, but not many of my teams have played up to my expectations,” Trifonov said. “We played good enough to win. The kids were probably a little bit nervous about being on TV.”

The Rattlers just had too much offensive firepower for the Bethune-Cookman (2-6, 0-1). The duo of freshman Jovana Blazeski and senior Iva Lakic, both from Serbia, combined for 32 total kills.

Bethune-Cookman had 34 total kills. FAMU had 50 total kills and just 14 errors compared to 22 for Bethune-Cookman.

“We committed a lot of unforced errors,” Trifonov said. “We'll work on that and get better. We need to be a little bit more aggressive offensively. We don't have that killer instinct. We're not hitting the ball as hard.”

FAMU, behind four kills from Lakic, won the first game 30-24 but never really pulled away from the Wildcats.

Photo: FAMU's Jovana Blazeski earns one of her 15 kills in the Rattlers' sweep over Bethune-Cookman.

FAMU won the second game in more convincing fashion 30-14. Blazeski, who is playing with a torn ACL in her left knee, dominated that game with eight kills and just one error. Blazeski isn't expected to have surgery to repair the ACL until December.

“Her mobility is not all there,” Trifonov said. “She is playing with a lot of guts.” As if playing with a blown knee wasn't tough enough, Blazeski also took ball to the face in the second game.

“Volleyball can be physical, especially when someone hits you in the head,” said Lakic, interpreting for Blazeski. “She got hit in the head, but she is powerful and can survive” Lakic topped the freshman in the third and final games with nine kills, leading FAMU to 30-18 win.

“I didn't think that I played very good in this game,” Lakic said. “I saw that I had 17 kills and that was good. Coach wants us to get our percentages better individually and as a team."

Good effort can't save Lamar soccer against Grambling State

Photo: Lamar’s Beth Squires tries to maintain control of the ball as Grambling State’s Solange Robinson (18) and Natasha Nzeakor (14) defend at Cardinal Stadium in Beaumont on Sunday.

By PERRYN KEYS, The Enterprise

BEAUMONT - The effort was there. The production was better. The result?

Well, for the Lamar soccer team, the final score wasn't much different from its previous six games.

Sunday afternoon at Cardinal Stadium, playing the first official home game in the program's history, the Cardinals fired just as many shots as Grambling State. Lamar, however, did not have just as many goals. In that category, it wasn't even close.

The Tigers scored twice in the first half and poured it on after the intermission in a 6-0 victory that left the Cardinals winless after their first seven games.

"If I was their coach, I would tell them (to) just keep their heads up," Grambling coach Tamura Crawley said of Lamar.

"They have a lot of good players on their team. Just look to connect on more passes, things like that. And again, really keep their heads up."

As lopsided as the score was, it did offer at least some encouragement for the Cardinals.

Before Sunday's game, opponents had outshot Lamar by an average of 29.3 shots per game. In fact, the Cards had managed just eight shots on goal the entire season. Their opponents had 118.

Against Grambling (2-5), Lamar attacked more often and with more success, setting season highs with 19 shots and six shots on goal.

The difference: While the Tigers also took 19 shots, 12 of them were on goal. Six of those 12 found the back of the net.

"Honestly, I think we played some of the best soccer we've played in a long time," Lamar coach Matthew Dillon said. "Unfortunately, we let a couple of soft goals in, and that's always hard to come back from. ... To me, it's one of those games where if you played it 10 times, they'd win five and we'd win five. I think the teams were fairly even and equal, as far as ability (goes). They didn't go our way."

Now comes the hard part.

Despite the progress, the fact of the matter is that Lamar, a startup program in its first year, has been outscored 54-1 in seven games - and while Dillon has not seen his players mail it in yet, even he admitted the post office might not be very far off.

"You start to worry about it now," he said. "Seven games into the season and you're 0-7 - you want to make sure they're positive. You want to make sure they can believe they can win. We've come against some really good teams, and Grambling's a really good team ... (but) if we're 0-10 after 10 games, I think maybe their heads start to drop. At this point, they haven't yet."

Sunday's game is believed to be the first official Lamar sporting event in Cardinal Stadium since the university killed its football program in 1989.

It was also the first official home game for the soccer team, which played a pair of exhibitions last month before opening its regular season at three tournaments on the road.

Three hundred thirty-five fans showed up for the debut. They watched the home team fall behind in the 15th minute, when Grambling's Ashley Baker turned and fired off the first of her three goals on the afternoon.

Angelica Singh followed in the 23rd minute with a slow roller that LU goalkeeper Kelsie Binetti appeared ready to stop. But the ball trickled past Binetti, giving the Tigers a 2-0 lead at halftime.

Natasha Nzeakor scored on a penalty kick in the 51st minute, and Baker added her second goal on a nice centering pass from Obafemi Alao, who had three assists on the day.

Baker finished off her hat trick with a goal in the 67th minute. Alao added Grambling's sixth goal on a breakaway three minutes later.

Binetti had six saves in goal for Lamar. Stefani Turner and Beth Squires led the Cardinals with four shots off the bench.

"Actually, I thought they really played well," Crawley said of Lamar.

"From the scouting reports I got, I thought this would be a difficult game for us. We came out and took it to them, but I think even to the end, (Lamar) played with a lot of heart and a lot of character."