UMBC

Sophomore Kira Giles added 48 assists in the loss to George Washington and is now eighth all-time at UMBC in career assists.

BALTIMORE—The UMBC women’s volleyball team dropped their first game of the season, falling to George Washington, 3-1 (30-24, 28-30, 17-30, 27-30), on Tuesday night in the RAC Arena.

The Retrievers snap a four-game winning streak to fall to 4-1, while the Colonials improve to 3-4 on the season.

Freshman Bridget Scheetz (St. Louis, Mo./Ursuline Academy) led the Retrievers in the defeat, totaling 12 kills and a .348 hitting percentage, while also recording two service aces and three block assists.

Janine Brown led the Colonials with a double-double of 23 kills and 18 digs, while hitting .347.

The Retrievers drew first blood in the opening game thanks to assisted blocks by senior Katrina Carrick (San Diego, Calif./Morse) and sophomore Sarah Fillmore (Gaithersburg, Md./Gaithersburg).

Carrick contributed three of her team-leading four block assists and her only solo block of the match in the first set, while Fillmore tallied three kills on four attacks for a .750 hitting percentage.

Freshman Sabrina Hoeks (Olympia, Wash./AG West Black Hills) gave the Retrievers the set point with a kill from sophomore Kira Giles (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada/Glenlawn).

Scheetz led the Retrievers with four kills and four points scored, while hitting .333, well above UMBC’s Game 1 average of .257.

The Retrievers hitting percentage steadily declined over the four-set match, dropping as low as .022 in the fourth set, where the Retrievers committed 11 attack errors.

Game 2 saw the Retrievers tie the Colonials 12 times, but take the lead only five times, including a 25-24 lead off of sophomore Ashley Oscars' (Bakersfield, Calif./Liberty) kill.  A service error by Oscars on the next play knotted the score at 25 and marked the last time the Retrievers would lead the game, falling to the Colonials, 30-28.

Scheetz once again led the team with four kills and committed only one error for a .375 hitting percentage, superior to the team average of .182.

With Brown serving, the Colonials recorded a 10-0 run in the third game for a 14-2 lead over the Retrievers and led by as much as 16 points on two different occasions to claim the 30-17 win.

Game 4 was another back and forth affair, with the Retriever tying the game at 25 points each, but a service error by Fillmore gave the Colonials the 30-27 set point and match win.

Oscars tallied a total of 16 kills, four blocks (three assisted) and 19.5 points, while Giles recorded 48 assists to bring her career total up to 1,053, eighth on the Retrievers’ all-time list.

The Retrievers will travel to Hamden, Conn. this weekend where they will face Providence, Rider, and host Quinnipiac in the Quinnipiac Tournament, beginning with Providence on Sept. 8 at 4:30 p.m.