BOX SCORE
West Hartford, Conn. – The University of Hartford volleyball team thwarted a seven point UMBC run in the fourth set to force a fifth set decision defeating the Retrievers 3-2 for the first conference victory in 2011. Hartford (10-10 overall, 1-2 America East) was led by junior outside hitter Kami Nethersole who led all players in the match with 24 kills.
The teams split the first two sets by almost identical score with UMBC winning the opener 25-18 and the Hawks tying the match with a 25-17 score in the second set. The Retrievers came out of the break and scored a 25-19 victory in the third set, giving themselves a late cushion the Hawks weren't able to recover from.
In the fourth set, the Hawks looked to be heading towards a match-tying victory after opening the set with four unanswered points and taking a 14-6 advantage, the largest for either team in the match. The Retrievers weren't going to go retreat, battling all the way back to take a 23-21 lead before the Hawks rattled off the final four points, including kills from Michelle Cordell and Dionna Kirton to force the decisive set.
The Hawks opened up the fifth set very much the same as they did in the fourth set, jumping out to a 4-1 early advantage. They would extend that to as much as seven on two occasions and battled off a late run of three-straight points that would bring the retrievers within a 12-8 margin before a Retrievers error and an impressive swing from Cordell sealed the victory for the home team. The win is the first for the Hawks over UMBC since November 15, 2003 in what was just the second meeting all-time between the two conference foes. Hartford had dropped 16-straight matches against the Retrievers.
Joining Nethersole in leading the Hawks offensive efforts was Cordell who was the only other player to finish in double figures putting down 11 kills. Nethersole led all Hawks hitters with a match-best .360 hitting percentage swinging into just six errors in 50 total attempts. As a team, the Hawks finished the match hitting .187 with 57 total kills, four shy of the Retrievers, and 25 errors in 171 total attacks. Sareeta Nethersole finished with seven kills and Lindsay Anderson would add six for the Hawks.
Much of the Hawks success against UMBC came on the defensive end where four players finished with double figure kills including match-high 22 from rookie Jackie Tamburri which also ties the setters career-high set against Rutgers on September 2. Tamburri also finished the match with 46 assists while adding four kills and just one error in 11 total dumps.
Joining Tamburri in piloting the Hawks defensive efforts were Kirton with 17, and the Nethersole sisters Sareeta with 14 and Kami with 13. The Hawks starting libero, Danielle Etta, was kept quiet for much of the match finishing with just five total digs. Anderson led the Hawks blocking efforts with five, of the team 11 total, to her credit. Cordell added four blocks, while Kirton and (Sareeta) Nethersole finished with three.
The Hawks will continue a four-match home stand with a Sunday afternoon matinee when the Stony Brook Seawolves invade the Reich Family Pavilion. The Hawks and Seawolves are set to battle at 2:00 p.m. in what serves as the Hawks Dig Pink match where they join the Side-Out Foundation in raising money for research and general awareness of Breast Cancer.
