WEST HAVEN, Conn. – The road to the title defense began in West Haven as the University of New Haven Volleyball team after earning the third overall seed in the Northeast 10 Tournament and welcomed the Penmen of Southern New Hampshire University to the Deborah Chin Court. This was the second meeting between these two teams as New Haven had hosted the Penmen in early October and took care of business winning 3-0 as Peyton Mast (Park Hills, Ky./Notre Dame Academy) and Grace Juergens (Lockport, Ill./Lockport Township) each had 11 kills in that meeting.

The postseason drama started early in the first set, as New Haven, fueled by the fans in the stands, took an early lead over SNHU and looked to run away early. SNHU however, dug in and began to battle back, taking a lead in the opening set and never gave it back to New Haven as it was SNHU taking the first set, 25-23. Down a set New Haven snapped back into their normal form and scored early and often, once again taking the early lead, but this time never giving it up and keeping their foot on the pedal. Throughout the set, New Haven capitalized on miss cues by SNHU along with sending statements with big kills out of the middle by Naliah Grannell (Hamden, Conn./Hamden) and from the outside by Juergens. A 3-0 run sealed the deal in the second as New Haven spread the attack around as Sofia Kamke (Santa Catarina, Brazil/Escola Tecnica do Vale do Itajai), Grannell, and Juergens each had kills to win the second set 25-14 led by Kamke's five kills. The second set saw high flying, scoring drama, but the third turned back to stalemate drama as New Haven led early, but a Penmen late lead forced New Haven to play from behind and battle back. The Chargers got close multiple times but never could finish off the run. Trailing by two late, 22-20, head coach Ana Pego called a timeout looking to regroup her team and did just that as out of the break New Haven tied the match back up and forced a timeout by SNHU. Out of that break, once again it was New Haven scoring a pair with a kill by Juergens and an ace by Evelyn Kay Girard (Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich Academy) to get to set point. SNHU got one more point but Juergens ended that with her fifth kill of the set to win the third, 25-23 and go up for the first time in the match 2-1. With a win, the Chargers would punch their ticket to the semi-final and a rematch with the Falcons of Bentley and with the crowd behind them, New Haven took control in the fourth. New Haven never trailed in the fourth and always had an answer to stop any late runs by SNHU. With a late lead, New Haven pulled away late and Katharine Rank won the match and punched the Chargers ticket to the semi's with her third kill of the fourth set winning 25-14 and winning the match 3-1. Sofia Kamke (Santa Catarina, Brazil/Escola Tecnica do Vale do Itajai) led the attack with 16 kills as Payton Malinoski (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport Township) had 26 digs in the match and Tori Borton (Fort Myers, Fla./Fort Myers) added 25 assists in the match. 

With the win, New Haven Volleyball punched their ticket to the semifinals and set up a match against the Falcons of Bentley for a rematch of last year's semi final matchup and a redemption match for New Haven after the Falcons beat New Haven in the regular season. The Chargers will travel to Springfield, Massachusetts for the semi final match on Friday, November 22 with a time to be determined against the Falcons of Bentley University. All updates, schedules, and post-match recaps for the team will be available at Newhavenchargers.com.