By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
 
Sometimes a stat sheet is misleading, yet other times it shows all. William & Mary's 3-0 loss to the College of Charleston Saturday afternoon at Kaplan Arena was a classic case of the latter.
 
Despite not winning a set, the Tribe had only one fewer kill than the Cougars. The difference was 22 errors to Charleston's 11. W&M also had 10 service errors to only four by the Cougars.
 
Those numbers pretty much tell the story, along with a couple of other things Tribe coach Tim Doyle noticed.
 
"We missed some assignments we had game-planned for," he said. "And then we didn't terminate when we needed to. We had some one-on-one opportunities, some good chances for our attackers, and we just didn't turn those (into) points.
 
"To Charleston's credit, they're a super-scrappy team. They just kept coming after it and kept plays alive. When you're missing assignments and that sort of thing, it's tough to compete with a team that's willing to keep the ball in the play."
 
A crucial moment came in the third set after William & Mary (3-5, 0-3 CAA) had cut Charleston's lead to 19-16. After a timeout, the Cougars (9-7, 2-3) scored five of the next seven points with two coming on W&M service errors.
 
"Eighteen percent of our serves were misses," Doyle said. "That's too high. We want that to be in the low teens or high single digits."
 
W&M fought off three consecutive match points, one coming after Anna Porter dove nearly to the seats to keep a ball alive. But Gabi Bailey's kill clinched a 25-21 win in the third set
 
Charleston won the first set 25-20 by scoring six of the final eight points. The Cougars owned the second set 25-13.
 
Sophomore outside hitter Maddie Meyers led W&M with nine kills followed by fifth-year senior Julia Brown with eight along with four blocks. Freshman setter Amy Schwem had 19 assists, and Porter finished with 10 digs.
 
The good news for William & Mary is that a chance to even the weekend series comes tomorrow — same time, same place.
 
"That's the best part," Doyle said. "When you're a type-A competitor and you hate to lose, the one thing you want to do after a loss is have a revenge match. To have another shot at it immediately.
 
"To get a chance tomorrow, that's what you want. It's like, tonight was a mistake, tomorrow you'll get the real us."