By Staff Writer Samantha Wahl.
On Saturday, October 20, the women’s volleyball team played a double header at Salve Regina University’s Rodgers Recreation Center. The first match, starting at 12:45, was against Eastern Connecticut State University (ECS).
It wasn’t until the second match, at 3:10, that the Corsairs actually went up against the Salve Regina Seahawks.
The first set of the match against Eastern Connecticut started out as anyone’s game. The Corsairs held their own, with successful kills by Kristy Walton, Mallory Singer, Nicole Silverman, and Amanda LaCroix. Even so, the first set went to Eastern Connecticut, with a final score of 25-18.
The second set went quite differently. Eastern Connecticut was plagued by attack and service errors that when combined with some magnificent service aces by Nicole Silverman left UMD at a 10-6 lead by the time that Eastern Connecticut called a timeout.
The Corsairs held the lead for the rest of the set, with additional kills by Silverman as well as Samantha Sedano. The set went to UMD with a final score of 25-14.UMassD started out the third set strong; between a kill from Nicole Silverman and an ace served by Jillian Sykora, the team achieved an initial lead of 2-0. However, the competition quickly grew fierce.
The match was anyone’s up until ECS’s Sierra Orr served two consecutive aces, bringing the lead to Eastern Connecticut. From there, the Seahawks were on fire, and the set ended with them in a 25-18 lead.At this point, the teams went into a fourth set. This is because the match was a best-of-five, and where neither team had yet won three sets, it was impossible to declare a winner without continuing into a fourth set. That set was a close one, with the Corsairs securing an early lead of 4-2.
However, ECS was never far behind; the scores stayed relatively close behind. The first team to score 25 points turned out to be ECS, and so the set ended in their favor. The final score? 25-23 in favor of ECS. And with that, Easter Connecticut University clinched the match.The second match of the day was against host university, Salve Regina University (SRU). The first set of that one was relatively rough for the Corsairs; by the time UMD called a timeout, SRU had secured an 18-10 lead. The set finished with a score of 25-13 in a decisive victory for Salve Regina.
The second set of the match, Salve Regina held the lead consistently. Despite kills from Jordan Rittberger, Kristy Walton, Amanda Lacroix, and Nicole Silverman, UMD was never able to take the lead. The final score for the set came out to 25-19 in favor of Salve Regina.
The third set of the match would prove to be the final one. Though UMD had the lead at one point, a combination of attack errors on the part of UMD and kills on the part of SRU led to Salve Regina taking the lead.
The set ended with a score of 25-17. At that point, Salve Regina had three wins under their belt, which gave them the best of five and eliminated the need for a fourth set.
As usual, the UMassD Corsairs brought their tenacity, dedication, and skill to the court. Not every match can be a victory, but they’re sure to keep bringing their all in the future.
PHOTO COURTESY: CORSAIR ATHLETICS