WALTHAM, Mass. – The University of New Haven women's volleyball team opened its season by splitting a pair of matches at the Bentley Invitational, beating the Chestnut Hill Griffins 3-2 in the late match of the day. Earlier, the Chargers fell 3-1 to LIU Post.
 
Against the Griffins, Meagan Kennelly led the way, delivering 17 kills to go along with 16 digs. Kristine Rios (Miami, Fla./Coral Reef) led New Haven with 39 assists, adding nine kills without an error.
 
New Haven opened their second match of the day with a tight 25-22 first set victory. Both teams played well in the frame with the Chargers posting a blistering .419 hitting percentage while never trailing in the set. After the Blue and Gold raced out to a 4-0 lead, Chestnut Hill found its footing and made it a close set, tying the stanza at 8-8 and again at 18-18. From that point, New Haven took control, scoring six of the next eight points, with Kennelly driving home two kills during the run to help open a 24-20 lead. The Griffins rallied scoring the next two points, but Kennelly closed the door with a kill off a feed from Rios to win the set.
 
Chestnut Hill came back and claimed the second and third sets to take a 2-1 lead in the match. The Chargers fell behind 7-4 in the fourth set before coming back to take an 8-7 lead. Tied at 12-12 a few points later, a 9-3 run, capped by a Rios ace, pushed the Blue and Gold to a 21-15 advantage. This time the Griffins rallied, going on a 9-2 run of their own, taking a 24-23 lead, setting up match point. Undaunted, New Haven came up with the answer as a Kennelly kill and an ball handling error by Chestnut Hill put the Chargers up 25-24 before a service ace from Caprisha Richards (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands/Antilles School) won the set.
 
The fifth set was tightly contested with neither team holding more than a two point lead until the final stages. Tied at 11-11, the Chargers ripped off the final four points to close the set and the match.
 
In their first contest of the afternoon, the Chargers dropped the first set to LIU Post 25-17 before rallying to even the match with a 26-24 win in set two.  New Haven raced to an 11-4 lead in the second stanza, using a 9-1 run to build the lead with Richards, Rios and Morales all recording kills during the span, accompanied by three aces from Smith. The Pioneers won a pair of close sets in the third and fourth to round out the match.
 
Kennelly again led the way against LIU Post with 10 kills while Devin Smith (Middletown, N.Y./Pine Bush) recorded a team high 23 digs.
 
New Haven returns to action tomorrow morning when it rounds out the invitational, facing Florida Southern at 10:00 a.m. before a 2:30 p.m. tilt against Minnesota State-Crookston.