Volleyball Sweeps Felician, Drops Heartbreaker to Saint Anselm
Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 BOXSCORE – Mercy vs. Felician
BOXSCORE – Mercy vs. Saint Anselm
DOBBS FERRY (Sept. 17, 2011) – On Saturday afternoon, the Mercy College volleyball team hosted a tri-match with Felician College and Saint Anselm College coming into the Mercy Gymnasium. The Mavericks took the first match against Felician in three close sets but fell in the second match to Saint Anselm in five, bringing their record to 4-4. Felician leaves still winless with a 0-10 record after falling in the second match to Saint Anselm, which improves to 4-6 with the two-match sweep.
Mercy 3, Felician 0
In the first match of the day, each team's freshman outside hitter paced their squad, with Felician's Anni Polscher (Elmshorn, Germany) hitting six kills and Mercy's Brenna White (Gardnerville, Nev.) leading the match with 16 and tying a career high with a team-high 11 digs for the double-double. Sophomore outside hitter Nicolette Gebhardt (Middletown, N.Y.) also broke double digits in kills with 10 while freshman setter McKenna Ronan (Chandler, Ariz.) topped the team with 13 assists.
The Mavericks' superior .175 hitting percentage and slight edge in service aces and blocks kept them out of the Golden Falcons' grasp, and they eventually pulled away with a decisive 25-17 third-set victory after two close first sets. Senior setter Megan Delamater (Paramus, N.J.) led the Golden Falcons with 15 assists.
The Mavericks got a short respite between matches as Felician and Saint Anselm duked out the second match, which Saint Anselm took in three sets.
Mercy 2, Saint Anselm 3
With each team having beaten Felician in their first match, the third match was winner-take-all, and neither team disappointed in fighting for victory. An epic five-set match ensued as Saint Anselm took the first set only to be beaten worse by Mercy in the second. Tight third and fourth sets followed, with Mercy going down big early in the third and staging a furious rally before Saint Anselm closed it out, but repaying the favor with a commanding 16-5 lead en route to taking the fourth.
Finally in the fifth set, Mercy picked up the lead early but as senior outside hitter Charlotte Tencza (Greenfield, Mass.) took over the serve and started a Hawks rally that first put them up 8-3 over the Mavericks and then 11-4 before closing it out at 15-6 despite holding the edge in hitting percentage (.309 to .297). Several return and attack errors crippled the Mavericks late, but had it not been for some brilliant play on the back line by junior defensive specialist Marissa Hurley (Shirey, N.Y.), Mercy would have been out of it much sooner.
Four Hawks broke double digits in kills, as freshman outside hitter Holland McNabb (Huntington Beach, Calif.) led with 16 while both Tencza earned a double-double with 12 kills and a team-high 16 digs. Most impressively, however, was freshman setter Natalie Steinwart (Aurora, Ill.), who posted a triple-double with 10 kills, 49 assists and 12 digs.
White set her second career high of the day in leading the Mavericks with 26 kills and adding 10 digs for another double-double. Gebhardt added 17 kills while Ronan and freshman setter Michala Askew (Ringgold, Ga.) combined for 43 assists. Freshman libero Ericka Kane (Glendale, Ariz.) served up the day's top aces total in the match, with five.
Head Coach Alan Clements and the Mavericks will take to the road for a faceoff with Post University in Waterbury, Conn. on Thursday. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m.
