BOX SCORE
Philadelphia, Pa. – The Hawks volleyball team dropped its opening game at the Lehigh/Lafayette Cross Town Tournament on Friday night in five sets to Princeton, playing at Lehigh. Leading the Hawks were sisters Kami Nethersole, with 17 kills and Sareeta Nethersole with 10 kills and sophomore Dionna Kirton who chipped in 15 kills. The Hawks will play two more matches while in Philly facing the Lafayette Leopards (10:00 a.m.) and St. Francis-PA (12:30 p.m.), with both matches scheduled to be played at Lafayette.
The Hawks never led in the match as Princeton won the first (25-21) and third (25-16) sets and the Hawks battled to tie the match in each of the even sets (25-15 in the second set and 26-24 in the fourth set). In the fifth and final set, the teams remained knotted up until switching sides with an 8-7 Princeton lead. After that switch, the Tigers won two straight points and after the Hawks rattled off two straight points, Princeton went on to close out the match scoring the final five points including three of kills from Sarah Hanna.
The Hawks finished the match hitting .139 with 59 kills and 32 errors in 194 total attacks, while Princeton finished the match hitting .217 with 64 kills and 23 errors in 189 total attempts. The Hawks best hitting came in the second set as they put up a .385 percentage with 18 kills and just three errors in 39 total swings. Princeton finished the fifth and deciding set with a match-high hitting percentage of .455 with no errors in 22 swings, while putting down 10 kills.
Individually, Kirton led the teams hitters with a .263 hitting average. Including her 15 kills she swung five errors in 38 total attacks. Freshman Jackie Tamburri finished the game with 49 assists as she led the Hawks offense throughout the match. She was also among the leaders defensively (12 digs) as one of six players who finished the match with double figure digs. Leading the team's defensive efforts was Sareeta Nethersole who finished with a career-high 22 digs. Sophomore Taylor McCreery finished with 14 digs, while senior Michelle Cordell added 12. Rounding out the leaders was Kami Nethersole with 13 and Kirton with 11.
Princeton's Cathryn Quinn led the Tigers with 15 kills and a .279 hitting average with three errors in 43 total attacks. Lydia Rudnick joined her in double figures with 11 kills. On the defensive side Hilary Ford ended the match with a massive 34 digs.
