By Christopher McLaughlin
The CCSU Volleyball (4-12, 2-3 NEC) team found its second conference win with a three set sweep of the St. Francis (NY) Terriers as a part of the CCSU homecoming weekend.
The Blue Devils won the sets 25-19, 25-17, and 25-12 respectively.
“Our girls played with a lot of fire today. They looked to be more in synch with each other on the court.” said Head Coach Linda Sagnelli.
The Blue Devils seemed intent on dominating right from the start. When the first set was tied 15-15, the Blue Devils went on a 10-4 run to close it out.
During the set, the Blue Devils were able to pull away by asserting their will on the net posting 10 blocks. In addition to the blocks, the Blue Devils were able to put up a more efficient kill percentage despite having less kills.
While the rest of the stats were identical, St. Francis really hurt themselves with unforced errors. They had five serving errors and nine attacking errors, both double the errors CCSU made.
“We just suffered two disappointing losses so it was important to come out and get the first game. We still looked inconsistent at times but we showed improvement.” said Sagnelli.
During the second set, the Blue Devils didn’t put on the defensive showcase of the first set, but they were able to dominate offensively. The team recorded 17 kills at a .302 percent.
Emily Cochran led the way with six kills followed by Blaike King with four. Amanda Bayer single-handedly had more assists than St. Francis’ entire team, with 15.
While the set wasn’t close, St Francis was able to record more digs than CCSU keeping them alive until CCSU‘s relentless attack finally put them down.
“Their libero made it very difficult on us. She was very scrappy and made some impressive digs, but we were able to keep the pressure up and made some very smart plays.” said Sagnelli.
The third set proved to be the most lopsided of the match as CCSU won 25-12. Although it was a blow-out, the score was tied 9-9 until CCSU went on a 10-0 run to put both the set and the match out of reach for St. Francis.
The run was led by Cochran, who served the ball for all 10 points and recorded three aces during the stretch. Tori Vaughn also recorded four of her five kills during the run.
There were no volleys during CCSU’s run, just quick kills and more St. Francis errors. By the time St. Francis got the ball back they knew it was over, scoring only off of CCSU errors.
Bayer also recorded two impressive aces and had the final assist of the match on Sara Delacey’s vicious final kill.
“Both Emily and Amanda did great jobs with their serves. Everywhere I told them to put the ball they were able to do. Amanda’s second ace was one of the hardest spots to place the ball but I saw it coming the whole way. It was great for us to win a match in three sets, it’s something the girls really wanted to prove they could do.” said Sagnelli.
The Blue Devils will go on the road to face Providence College on Wednesday, and will face two more division rivals on the road before returning home to play Quinnipiac on October 23.
