BOX SCORE
WEST HARTFORD, CONN. – The University of Hartford volleyball team battled for a five-set (26-24, 13-25, 25-21, 14-25, 15-11) win over the Albany Great Danes on Sunday at the Reich Family Pavilion. The win is the first league victory of the season for Hartford and is the first conference loss of the season for the Great Danes (14-6, 4-1 AE). Hartford (6-16, 1-4 AE) was led in the match by sophomore Kami Nethersole who finished with a match-high 19 kills.
The Hawks win was the first over Albany since taking a pair of matches from the Great Danes in the 2002 season, both of which went to five sets.
Nethersole's 19 kills was one of two Hawks hitters in double figures, with Dionna Kirton joining her with 14 kills. Michelle Cordell and Sydney Scott finished just shy of double figures in kills with each adding nine. Among the leading hitters, Kirton led the team with a .250 hitting percentage, hitting just four errors in 40 total attacks. Nethersole finished with a .182 hitting percentage with nine errors in 55 total swings.
As a team, the Hawks were outhit by the Great Danes. Hartford finished the match with a .171 hitting percentage on 62 total kills and 31 errors in 181 total attempts, while the Great Danes finished with 56 kills and just 19 errors in 160 total attacks for a .231 hitting percentage.
Defensively, the Hawks had four players with double figure digs, led by Danielle Etta who finished with a match-best 20 as the starting libero. Finishing just shy of her was Kirton, the first of three players with double doubles. Kirton finished with 19 digs. Nethersole and Lindsay Ford closed out the two remaining double doubles. Nethersole added 10 digs to her stat line, while ford also added 10 digs to go along with a match-high 52 assists. Also on the defensive end, two Hawks finished with four kills each, with Scott and Lindsay Anderson each recording one solo block and three block assists.
Hartford battled from early deficits in each of its first two set victories. In the opening set, the Hawks trailed by a 4-0 margin before four-straight points evened things out. The score would teeter for the rest of the set with the tied knotted 15 different times. A kill from the Great Danes Traci Vandergrift tied the score at 24 before the Hawks put things away following an error on the visitors Casey Wright. Senior setter, Ford closed out the set and the point for the Hawks with a kill, to put the momentum on the Hawks side.
That momentum came to an abrupt halt as the Great Danes answered back in the second set by taking an 18-1 lead and won the set to even the match heading into the intermission break. Hartford came out of that break and to regain the match lead with a 25-21 victory in the third set.
The Great Danes again took an early lead, this time by a 6-3 margin, before the Hawks came back to tie the score at seven and eight before taking a 10-8 lead on a Ford kill. Following that minimal margin, the tied knotted four times, before the Hawks took a 17-14 advantage, one they would not relinquish.
The Hawks largest lead of the set came at 22-17 off a kill from rookie Anderson off a bad dig on the Great Danes. Nethersole would end the set with a kill of her own, off a set from Ford.
The fourth set would remain within reach for the home team through the first 17 points. The Great Danes then took seven of the next nine points and an 18-10 lead. Back-to-back hitting errors on the Hawks ended the set and forced the fifth and deciding set.
The momentum switched early in the final set as the Hawks took the first two points on kills by Nethersole and Scott before the visitors would score. The Great Danes would never lead in the match, but would get close enough to tie the score on three occasions.
After a kill from Teresa Coppiellie tied the score at eight, the Hawks would win five of the next six points to take a 13-9 lead. The final three points in that run came off the hands of Cordell, who knocked down back-to-back kills, and Kirton with a kill, all three off sets from Ford. After a Cordell kill put the Hawks at match point, Albany's Lindsey McCloskey sent a kill brushing off the net and out of bounds, ending the match in favor of the home team.
The Hawks will play a pair of conference matches in the coming week, splitting a home-and-home series with the Stony Brook Seawolves. Hartford and Stony Brook will start the series on Friday (7:00 p.m.) in Stony Brook, N.Y. before heading to West Hartford on Sunday (2:00 p.m.) to close it out.
