WEST HARTFORD, Conn. - Led by senior Elisa Herrmann (Andernach, Germany)
and sophomore Jessica Croucher
(Brisbane, Australia) and their combined 20 kills, the Delaware State
University volleyball earned their first victory of the season Saturday evening
as they swept Quinnipiac, 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-23) to wrap up the
Hartford/Quinnipiac Invitational.
Earlier in the day, Hartford defeated the Hornets, 3-0 (22-25, 14-25, 10-25).
Del
State (1-7) started set one of the Quinnipiac (1-8) match with a 4-0 lead. With a kill from Brittanie Robinson, the
Bobcats took the 14-11 advantage before the Hornets fought back and went up,
19-15. DSU would go up 23-20 before a
kill from sophomore Brooke Redmon (Warrenton,
Va.) and a bad set from QU's Olivia Grattan gave the Hornets a set one win.
In
set two, Quinnipiac took a 14-10 lead before a 9-0 run from DSU put the Hornets
on top, 19-14. The run included four
kills from Croucher and two from freshman Theresa
Schieder (Munich, Germany). The
Bobcats would come back and tie things at 23-23, but blocks from junior Laisha Davis (Riviera Beach, Fla.), Bel Fakaosi (Salt Lake City, Utah) and
Herrmann gave the Hornets a 2-0 match advantage.
Neither
team took a large lead in game three as the Hornets and Bobcats exchanged
points throughout nearly the entire set.
Del State took a 22-20 lead with two kills from Davis and one from
Herrmann. QU was able to bring things to
24-23, but a kill from Redmon sealed the victory for the Hornets.
Senior
Sonja Banicevic (Zagreb, Croatia)
finished the match with 22 digs while Schieder contributed 11 of her own. Fakaosi collected 32 assists on the day and
posted a .344 assist percentage.
Croucher led the game with a .409 (10 kills/22 total attacks/one error)
attack percentage.
In
the first game of the day for Del State, Fakaosi recorded 16 assists and
Banicevic posted 10 digs. The Hornets
recorded a .062 attack percentage in the 3-0 loss to Hartford.
The
Hawks led for the majority of the first set before DSU went on a 6-0 run on
Hartford's match-point to bring the score to 24-22. The run included two kills from Croucher and
one from Schieder. Michelle Cordell
wrapped up the game for the Hawks with a kill.
Sets
two and three weren't as close as Hartford (4-6) took a 21-9 lead in game two
and the Hornets were never able to recover and lost, 25-14. The Hawks also dominated the third set and at
one point took a 16-point lead before taking the game, 25-10.
Del
State plays in their last tournament of the regular season next weekend at the
Dartmouth Invitational. The Hornets will
take on Central Connecticut State on Friday before facing Providence and host
Dartmouth on Saturday.
