NORTH EASTON, Mass. - It took five sets to decide a winner in this afternoon's clash of titans atop the conference standings in the Northeast-10 with the New Haven women's volleyball team prevailing 3-2 over Stonehill Saturday afternoon. With the win the Blue and Gold move to 19-7 on the year and 9-2 in league play with just two matches left on the regular season calendar.
As a team the Blue and Gold hammered 59 kills on 169 total attempts for a .249 hitting percentage on the day, led by 18 from senior outside Emily Barry (Freeport, N.Y./Sacred Heart Academy), 16 from freshman outside Macy Brown (Cadillac, Mich./Cadillac) and 14 courtesy of senior right-side Jessica Akiona (Kapolei, Hawaii/La Pietra- Hawaii School for Girls). Setting them up on the night was freshman setter Sophia Leon-Tabor (Fort Myers, Fla./Fort Myers) who dished out 50 of the Chargers 54 assists on the night. Barry would lead the team in points of the serve, tallying three service aces, one ahead of sophomore libero Rilee Jessee (Edinburgh, Ind,/Columbus East) who also provided three helpers on offense.
The New Haven defense collected 82 digs in the match paced by a career-high 24 digs from Jessee, followed by 15 from Brown, and 12 each from Akiona and Leon-Tabor. At the net Barry, Akiona and senior middle Jalynn Finnie (Pearland, Texas/Dawson) each finished with 2.5 total blocks on the afternoon.
The visitors would gain the lead to open the contest, but it would be the Skyhawks who maintained the advantage for most of the first set. After regaining the lead at 19-18, New Haven would rally late to secure an opening set victory 25-22.
Stonehill would counter impressively in the second set, scoring five of the first seven points, eventually taking a 10-5 lead early. The home side would extend their lead to 23-17, before the Blue and Gold put up four of the next five to force a timeout, which was immediately followed with two more points before Stonehill closed the set with. 25-22 win to level the match at one apiece.
Set three saw the Chargers flip the script on their opponent early on, extending a 10-5 advantage of their own, and would hold that lead the duration of the set. New Haven remained resilient on the offensive and defensive fronts, preventing the Skyhawks from coming within more than four points, en route to a 25-19 victory to regain their advantage in the contest.
New Haven would open an early 4-1 lead in set four, but Stonehill would counter early enough to prevent the set from getting out of hand, and would take a timeout level at 10-10. Out of the stoppage Stonehill would score back-to-back and maintain the lead from there, taking the set 25-19 to force a fifth.
The two sides evenly exchanged the first six points of the final stanza, before New Haven rallied to score five straight to take an 8-3 lead. From there the Chargers would go on to score seven of the final 11 points to take decisive set 15-8.
The Chargers will head back up to the Bay State for their final road contest of the regular season Tuesday to take on Assumption. First serve from Laska Gymnasium is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
