Vestal, NY ? The University of Hartford volleyball team dropped its second-straight 3-0 (11-30, 24-30, 27-30) America East road match to Binghamton on Sunday afternoon. The Hawks were led by Jennifer Monroy who finished with eight kills while Erin Macro finished just behind her with seven. With the loss, Hartford is now 7-14 overall and 0-7 in America East action while the Bearcats improve to 11-14 overall and 6-1 in conference play.
Monroy led the team in attacks but struggled in hitting where she finished with a negative hitting percentage after committing 13 errors in 35 total attacks, with eight good for kills. Monroy finished with a .182 attack percentage with her seven kills, three errors in 22 total attacks. Sarah Rasor continues to marshal the Hawks offense with 27 assists while Monroy also led the defense with 10 digs, the only player with double digit digs.
The Hawks fell behind early in the first game with Binghamton pulling out to a 7-0 lead. In that early run, Megan Hoag had a kill and three service aces. After Hartford pulled out three-straight points the Bearcats again rallied for eight points to pull ahead 16-5. Hartford would get no closer with the biggest lead of the game coming at 28-9 before a Hawks error closed out the first game.
It was a different story in the second game as the Bearcats weren't able to pull ahead until a five-point run in the middle of the match. In that run Kathleen Schauer had a pair of kills while Ashley Meffert added an ace. Hartford pulled within three at 21-18 on an ace for Ljiljana Zecevic, but a Hawks attacking errors cost the second game to fall in favor of Binghamton.
After the 10-minute break the teams battled with neither holding more than a four-point advantage. The Hawks held the lead for the first half of the game until the Bearcats tied things up at 15 on a ball handling error charged to Hartford. The Bearcats in that same run took their first lead of the game on back-to-back aces from Hoag. Hartford pulled back ahead with the Bearcats again tying the game at 21 and taking a lead for good on a four-point run. Back-to-back hitting errors on Hartford put the match in the books.
The Hawks will again take to the road on Tuesday, when they travel to Providence for a rematch of an earlier season meeting which the Hawks were victorious. Hartford and Providence are scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m.
