GAME DAY INFORMATION
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DATE: October 3, 2019
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LOCATION: Charger Gym | West Haven, Conn.
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GAME DAY LINKS
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LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO
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THE LEAD
The Chargers take a two-match break from Northeast-10 play to host a pair of regional opponents beginning with Caldwell on Thursday night at Charger Gym. With the midweek match-up, New Haven puts a three-game win streak on the line while the Blue and Gold has won six of its last seven matches overall.
SERIES HISTORY VS CALDWELL
New Haven and Caldwell meet for the fourth time in the history of the program and for the third-straight season. Overall, New Haven has never lost to the Cougars, sweeping Caldwell in all three of the previous matches. The series opener came early in the 2010 season, while the next meeting didn't take place until the 2017 NCAA East Region Championships with New Haven defeating the eighth seeded Cougars in the opening round. Last season, New Haven and Caldwell met on September 1 as part of the East Stroudsburg Invitational.
SCOUTING THE CHARGERS
New Haven rides a three-match win streak into its non-conference meeting with Caldwell with the two most recent wins coming in NE10 action as the Chargers opened conference play 2-0. New Haven has a very balanced offensive attack with three players already surpassing the century mark in hitting. Leading the way is sophomore
Ruby Fera (Seattle, Wash./Ballard) with 110 kills while she is joined by junior
Kali Greathead (Temecula, Calif./Temecula Valley) (101 kills) and senior
Mallory Nowicki (Grand Rapids, Mich./Northview) (100 kills). Of the three leading hitters Nowicki leads the way with a. 222 attack percentage. Also joining in the offensive threat is junior
Camille Garden (Atlanta, Ga./Landmark Christian) who adds 75 kills while she leads the team with 33 blocks on the year. The Chargers utilize a 6-2 rotation at the setter position with junior
Angela Chan (Jacksonville, Fla./Bishop Kenny) (277 assists) and freshman
Sammie Paguia (Ashburn, Va./Stone Bridge) (108 assists) splitting the workload. Defensively, New Haven has relied on rookie libero
Julia Guarniere (Milford, N.H./Milford) to do the majority of the work, racking up 202 digs, while Nowicki follows Garden in the blocking efforts with 22 total returns.
SCOUTING THE COUGARS
Caldwell struggled through the opening weeks of the season, however recently opened up CACC action taking wins in three of their first four matches. Also adding to their win column were a pair of victories over NE10 competition with a five-set win over Assumption and a three-set sweep of Southern Connecticut. For the season, Caldwell is led by sophomore outside hitter Elise Smith who has collected 165 kills for an average of 3.24 per set, while hitting .182 on the year. She is also one of the best servers on the team, currently second overall with 14 aces, while freshman middle Cassandra Rother leads the team with 18. Joining Smith in leading the Cougars offensively is junior hitter Chloe Kissner who follows her with 108 kills. New Haven's offense will need to work around senior middle Katie Compagno who enters Thursday with a team-high 36 blocks, one of four players with double figure blocks.
UP NEXT
New Haven will host its penultimate non-conference match nearly a week after taking the court against Caldwell when the Bridgeport Purple Knights visit Charger Gymnasium on Wednesday, October 9. The battle of I-95 is scheduled to start at 7:00 p.m.
