Health & Fitness
Volleyball Falls in Home Opener to Holy Cross in Three Sets
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – The University of Hartford volleyball team (2-7 overall) dropped a three-set decision to the visiting Holy Cross Crusaders on Tuesday night in their opening match at the Reich Family Pavilion. Hartford was led by freshman Corinne Horanzy who finished with seven kills and eight digs.
Following Horanzy in leading the Hawks offensive threat was sophomore Chandler Goodwin and Dionna Kirton who each finished with five kills. Among the three leaders, Goodwin led the way with a .200 hitting average with two errors in 15 attempts. Hartford's setter Jackie Tamburri finished with a team best .500 hitting average without an error in six attacks, adding three kills. The floor marshal also finished with 22 assists. As a team, Hartford finished with 28 kills and 19 errors in 109 attempts.
Defensively, Hartford was led by Kirton and Sareeta Nethersole who each finished with 11 digs, as nine different players assisted on the defensive end. In addition to Kirton and Nethersole leading the way, Paola Llerandi and Horanzy finished with nine and eight digs, respectively.
After trading the first eight points of the game, Hartford picked up back-to-back points to take a 6-4 lead. The first of those points came on a Tamburri kill, while Alicia Tripoli followed with the first service ace of the match. The Crusaders responded by scoring the next three points for the first lead change of the match, but the Hawks struck back to take a 9-8 lead on kills from Goodwin and Kirton.
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Hartford's final lead in the opening set came at 10-9 thanks to Horanzy's kill. The Crusaders then scored eight straight before Hartford used back-to-back kills fromLindsay Swan and Lindsay Anderson to break up the run.
In the second set, Hartford scored four of the first six points to take a 4-2 lead. A kill from Kirton and blocks from Anderson and Horanzy led to that advantage. An ace from Kamele Shizuru and a kill from Katie McKernan closed out a 6-1 run for the Crusaders which led to a 10-6 lead for the visitors, one they would not relinquish.
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After the Crusaders opened up their largest lead in the third set, 18-12, the Hawks began to mount a comeback scoring eight straight points to gain a 20-18 advantage before the run was broken up. Despite the run coming to an end, the Hawks were able to extend their lead to as much as a three point cushion thanks to a kill from Horanzy and a Holy Cross error. The Crusaders would respond by rattling off the final six points of the set to earn the game and match victory.
The Hawks return to tournament play with a pair of games at the Art Carmichael Invitational hosted by the University of Rhode Island. Hartford opens the two-day event with a Friday afternoon match against Texas-El Paso (3 p.m.) before taking on the host Rams on Saturday, also at 3 p.m.
