By Matthew Aveni
The Blue Devils volleyball team played in their final weekend tournament of the season at the Temple Invitational. The Blue Devils were set to face Temple, Navy and Cornell in the games. The Blue Devils finished the tournament in three losses. The three losses push the Blue Devils record to 5-8 on the season.
The first game of the tournament the Blue Devils faced versus Temple. Central seemed to be carrying over their momentum from the New Hampshire Invitational as they took the first set from the Owls with long service runs from freshman Makenna Lommori and senior Blaike King. This momentum was short lived as Temple won three straight to finish the match. The Blue Devils were led by King in kills as she recorded thirteen kills. Brittany Schumacher led the defensive force for the Blue Devils and had eighteen digs.
“Brittany is a workaholic. She has improved her game so much from last year and we hope she will keep moving forward with her game. She is very sharp and competitive and that energy she brings keeps the team up during game,” said Blue Devil head coach Linda Sagnelli.
Day two of the tournament for the Blue Devils was much of the same as day one. The team could not pull together and string together points to get the win.
In the second match, the Blue Devils went up against Cornell. Cornell put together two wins (25-20) and (25-19) and Central on the ropes for the rest of the match. The Blue Devils pulled out a close third set win (25-23), but Cornell closed out the match with a dominating (25-13) victory. Blaike King again led the offense with fourteen kills.
“A lot of mistakes were creeping into our game and that’s not like us. It shows us what we need to work on and what parts we really need to improve,” said Sagnelli.
The third and final game of the tournament was no improvement for the Blue Devils.
“It was like swimming in mud, there was a lot of effort we just weren’t accomplishing much,” explained Sagnelli.
Central was beat in three straight sets versus Navy (25-18),(26-24) and (25-22). Senior Captain Emily Cochran led the offense for the Blue Devils with ten kills and she only recorded two errors in the final match.
Finishing the third game of the tournament with a loss left the Blue Devils winless for the tournament.
“We did not play up to the level of play we did last weekend,” said Sagnelli on her teams play.
The one bright spot for the Blue Devils was freshman Makenna Lommori won setter of the tournament. This is huge going into NEC play for the Blue Devils because she is a vital part of their offense being the setter. Sagnelli does not want to dwell on the tournament with their first NEC game of the year coming up versus the St. Francis (N.Y).
Sagnelli said, “The future is ahead and we are really looking forward to go to St. Francis and start our NEC schedule.”