Volleyball Drops Matches to Southern Connecticut State and American International
Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 BOXSCORE – Mercy vs. Southern Connecticut State
BOXSCORE – Mercy vs. American International
DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Oct. 8, 2011) – On Saturday afternoon the Mercy College volleyball team took a break from its two-match East Coast Conference winning streak to host a tri-match featuring Southern Connecticut State University and American international College. Despite competing evenly in each match, attack errors doomed the Mavericks (they broke 40 kills in each but posted hitting percentages of .086 and .066) as they fell to both opponents in four sets.
Mercy's record falls to 7-13 overall (2-2 in the ECC), while Southern Connecticut defeated AIC in five sets to sweep their matches and improve to 14-5 and AIC finished the day at 8-10 with the split.
Mercy 1, Southern Connecticut 4
In the first match, Mercy took the first set, 28-26 but dropped the next three by scores of 25-21, 25-17 and 25-21. Freshman outside hitter Brenna White (Gardnerville, Nev.), ranked seventh in the nation with 4.52 kills-per-set earlier in the week, improved on her tally with a match-high 20 kills and added 11 digs for the double-double.
Sophomore outside hitter Nicolette Gebhardt (Middletown, N.Y.) added 11 kills and freshman setter McKenna Ronan (Chandler, Ariz.) made a career-high 26 assists with classmate Michala Askew (Ringgold, Ga.) still shelved with an injury. Sophomore middle hitter Nicole Pepe (East Meadow, N.Y.) and senior right side hitter Crasheena Ward (Danbury, Conn.) tied for the match lead with 3.5 total blocks apiece. Freshman defensive specialist Ericka Kane (Glendale, Ariz.) served a match-high five aces as well.
The Owls' sophomore middle blocker Sarah Beres (Ellington, Conn.) led the squad with 13 kills, while junior setter Kimberly Lachowicz (Mansfield, Texas) made 39 assists and junior libero Vanessa Sullivan (Paramus, N.J.) had 15 digs.
Mercy 1, American International 4
After the Yellow Jackets rallied from two sets down against Southern Connecticut to force a fifth but still lost, the Mavericks took to the court again looking to end the day on a high note.
Mercy gave up the first three points but quickly rallied to take the lead until making five attack and one service error over 11 points to give AIC the edge again. White and Gebhardt finally clicked in the latter half of the set, however, as White smashed eight kills in the set and Gebhardt notched two of the Mavericks' final three.
Mercy carried its momentum into the second set, taking a 7-3 lead until the Yellow Jackets found their game and rode two six-point runs to victory to level the match. Mercy kept within one of AIC for the majority of the third set but gave up the final seven points, the last four of which were on attack errors.
Finally, in the fourth set AIC jumped out to an early lead and Mercy could not recover, threatening at times but never pulling closer than three back and again caved at the end of the set, giving up the last five points.
Sophomore middle blocker Blair Havron (Pukulani, Hawaii) and senior outside hitter Elisha Terry (Fort Worth, Texas) led the Yellow Jackets with 16 and 12 kills, respectively, with Terry also totaling 14 digs for the double-double. Freshman setter Nikki Naccarato (Wellington, Fla.) assisted on 42 kills and sophomore libero Caitlin Connelly (Holbrook, N.Y.) led the Yellow Jackets with 15 digs and five service aces.
White managed to improve her kills-per-set slightly more with a match-high 19 and added a match-high 18 digs for her second double-double of the day. Gebhardt matched her 11 kills from the first match while Ronan set another career high in assists, with 32. Pepe also tied a career high in leading the squad with four aces and Ward added another 2.0 blocks to bring her total for the week to a whopping 14.0.
Head Coach Alan Clements and the Mavericks will return to their conference winning streak at Molloy College (5-12, 2-3) on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.
