The Oakland University volleyball team defeated the Robert Morris Colonials in straight sets on Saturday at the O’rena. 

It was a dominating start for the Grizzlies, as they got off to a 12-4 lead in the first set to force a Robert Morris timeout. Following the timeout, the Colonials went on a 9-3 run of their own to tighten things up.

The Grizzlies took a timeout as Robert Morris trimmed the lead down to one at 18-17.

The two teams would exchange points after this, then the Colonials would take their first lead at 22-21 to force another Oakland timeout.

The timeout seemed to pay off, as the Golden Grizzlies would rally for four straight points to take the first set 25-22.

Head Coach Rob Beam noted that Robert Morris had a lot of success in their previous conference [the Northeast Conference], so they aren’t meant to be taken lightly.

“[Robert Morris] is a team that’s won a lot in their previous conference and this is their first year in the Horizon League, and so they play with confidence,” Beam said. “They play like a team that’s won a championship before. So we really needed to steady ourselves out and do a better job in servicing. Then once we got that win, closing it out late in the set, I thought our setters did a great job running offense and taking opportunities where they were available.”

The second set was more competitive at the start, but Oakland started to pull away about halfway through. They would go on to take it 25-14. 

“We just put up more numbers than we’re used to seeing from our team,” Beam said. “We eliminated a few unforced errors, and again the setters did a great job finding things that were open, and the team really responded.” 

The Colonials got off to a quick start in the third set, taking an early 7-3 lead to force an Oakland timeout. The Grizzlies would then rally off four consecutive points to tie it at 7 and force a Robert Morris timeout.

This set was highly contested. You could tell both teams wanted it, but it was the Golden Grizzlies that wanted it more. They would take the set 25-19 to sweep the match. 

Beam said the timeout following the 7-3 deficit was the key to that set.

“I thought our team played pretty relaxed and we had scored a few of the points for them,” he said. “I think we had five unforced errors, and the team just responded and did an outstanding job of…good serving, being aggressive offensively and again centers doing a great job distributing offense that was working.”

Beam said he likes where his team is at heading into the home stretch.

“We’re in a good position in terms of the conference standings, but nothing’s final until we get to the end,” Beam said. “We went through a really difficult stretch of matches where he played six matches in 10 days. That was very fatiguing. I thought we had a good week of practice, we have another match tomorrow, then we don’t play again until Friday.”

Beam praised his training staff for their hard work during a hectic stretch as of late. 

“We actually have some training and opportunities for our athletic training staff, our nutrition staff, our [sports psychology], and then the weight staff to actually make an impact,” Beam said.”Those are all really good people and resources that we have here at Oakland and when you play so many matches, it’s hard to take advantage of those things.”

With the win, the Oakland volleyball team improved to 13-9 on the season and 7-4 in conference. Their next game is Friday, Oct. 29 at 6 p.m. against Cleveland State.