Kent State (1-7) struggled again this weekend, as they were swept in both matches they played at the Golden Flashes Classic.

“I think it just pretty much comes down to people having to take their roles on this team more to heart when doing their jobs,” coach Don Gromala said.

Kent State was swept (25-20, 25-20, 25-14) by Butler (7-2) to start the weekend off on Friday.

The Flashes finished with 35 kills, senior Kelsey Bittinger led the team with 17 of them.

“I think our offense and our defense need to connect at the same time. Either we’ll have a good defensive play or a good offensive play but we’re not feeding off each other and working together,” senior Challen Geraghty said.

The Flashes then fell 3-0 (25-17, 25-7, 25-17) to the College of Charleston (7-3) on Sunday afternoon. 

Senior Brittney Jakscht led the team with 11 assists and freshman Natalie Tagala finished right behind her with 10.

Despite the losses, Geraghty managed to hit 2,000 career digs in the first set of the match against Butler. She is second in digs in Kent State history and 15th in MAC history.

“When it happened we weren’t playing the best so I wasn’t really that excited for it, but it’s a great accomplishment and it means a lot” Geraghty said.

“It’s great, I think she had a great match. She’s been playing really hard,” Gromala said. “She really wants the team to be successful and win and I think she’s going to do whatever she can to do that.”

“We’re going to work hard and get back to work here in practice on making things better.” Gromala said on the team’s performance this weekend, “They have to start doing a little bit better as a group I think.”

Kent State will travel to Rochester, Michigan to play Oakland at 6 p.m. on Friday September 15^th in the Golden Grizzlies Invitational.

Taylor Sforzo is a sports reporter. Contact her at [email protected].