WALTHAM, MA. – After returning from their trip to the sunshine state, the University of New Haven Volleyball team traveled up to a familiar gym, the Dana Center in Waltham, Mass, to play at the Sandy Hoffman Memorial Tournament for a trio of matches that opened up against fellow Northeast 10 foe American International College before taking on Daemen University to wrap up night one of the tournament.

Game 1 vs AIC

The Yellowjackets opened up the scoring in the first set scoring a pair, but New Haven quickly responded as Grace Juergens (Lockport, Ill./Lockport Township) picked up her first kill and put the blue and gold on the board. Amber Williams (Lilburn, Ga./Brookwood) picked up the Chargers' second point and her first kill to cut into the Yellowjacket lead. A pair of attacking errors by the Yellowjackets saw the set tied at four before the blue and gold took their first lead of the opening set. AIC responded yet again to retake an early lead, but the blue and gold came storming back on a 10-4 run led by the pairing of Juergens and Brown each picking up two kills on the run forcing New Haven to call a timeout. Out of the timeout, AIC regrouped and bounced back, and retook the lead late in the opening set. With the pressure on late Juergens and Brown scored three straight points combined for New Haven to take a one-point lead 24-23 and force the Yellowjackets to again call a timeout. Out of the timeout, again AIC came out strong and were able to string off three points and take the opening set 26-24. Looking to respond the Chargers scored the first point in the second set, and weathered the storm from the Yellowjackets as both teams continued to battle back and forth trading points and leads, but down the stretch, AIC was able to pick up the final point of the set on an ace to take the second set 26-24 as well and go up 2-0 in the match. Just as the first two sets had gone the third continued the battle of the two teams each trading rallies and runs before the other would bounce back and retake a lead. Late in the set New Haven rallied four straight to take a one-point lead and force a timeout by the Yellowjackets. Out of the break, New Haven scored the first point as Naliah Grannell (Hamden, Conn./Hamden) picked up the kill. AIC got a kill before Juergens got the Chargers within two. After an AIC kill the defense came up big forcing an attack error to force the second AIC timeout on set point. Out of the break AIC used the breather to their advantage and scored a pair before Juergens ended that run to set up set point again for New Haven who capitalized on an attack error to win their first set 26-24 and make it 2-1 in the match. After forcing a fourth set, it was the Yellowjackets who looked to close things out jumping out to an early lead over the Chargers but New Haven dug in and found their stride and second gear with the pressure on. Amber Williams (Lilburn, Ga./Brookwood) won New Haven the point and served with her big kill and that got the race underway as New Haven began to close the gap and put the pressure on. An eight point swing in favor of the Chargers was the turning point as coming from behind, New Haven closed out the fourth set winning 25-20 on an ace and tying the match at 2-2. In the fifth set after coming back from 2-0 down New Haven had no intention of going to a fifth set and not winning the match and that was made certain with a strong start opening on a 3-0 run. After giving up the lead, New Haven scored eight of the last nine points closed out by Juergens' ace to win 15-12 and coming from behind 3-2 in the match. Grace Juergens (Lockport, Ill./Lockport Township) led the Charger's attack with 17 kills 15 digs and 2 service aces with her second being the match-winning ace. Amber Williams (Lilburn, Ga./Brookwood) posted 9 key blocks defensively as Carleigh Vedder (Moorehead, Minn./Moorehead) added 29 digs for herself. Each setter, Tori Borton (Fort Myers, Fla./Fort Myers) and Juli De Acharan (Sevilla, Spain/IES Nestor Almendros) found the big hitters as Acharan had 27 assists and Borton had 20. Riding the high, New Haven looked to make a splash into their match up with Daemen.

Game 2 vs Daeman

Getting a short break after coming from behind against AIC, the Chargers returned to the court against Daemen looking to pick up a second win on the afternoon. The Wildcats picked up the first point before Naliah Grannell (Hamden, Conn./Hamden) picked up where she left off in the first match picking up a kill and getting New Haven on the board. The Chargers and Wildcats battled back and forth trading points as New Haven led early and held onto the lead late in the first set being up 18-14. Daemen however put together a run to take the lead for the first time since early and were able to close out the final three points of the set to win 25-21. In the second, New Haven came back to tie the match at one jumping out early riding the hot hand of Juergens again with Sofia Kamke (Santa Catarina, Brazil/Escola Tecnica do Vale do Itajai) and Amber Williams (Lilburn, Ga./Brookwood) coming up big for the Chargers to hold the lead and keep it. The Chargers up 18-16 closed out the second set scoring seven of the final nine points as Katherine Rank (Parker, Colo./Ponderosa) had the final kill to even the match. In the third however, Daemen used the New Haven's strategy and jumped out to an early lead that they were able to keep weathering the New Haven push late as Daemen retook the lead in the match 2-1. After Daemen scored the first three, New Haven matched as Grannell and Juergens each had a kill. New Haven continued to roll keeping the momentum and bouncing right back after points scored by Daemen. An attack error set up set point but Daemen rallied for a pair of points to get to 23, but that would be as far as they would go as Juergens and New Haven closed out the fourth set with a kill to even the match at 2-2. In their second match to go to a fifth set of the day, New Haven came our hot jumping to an early 5-2 lead as Williams and Kamke each had a kill and Juergens had a pair. New Haven held the lead but a late push by Daemen saw them take the lead late. Grannell and Juergens each added kills but Daemen picked up the final point needed to hold off New Haven's late push. In the 3-2 loss Juergens added 19 kills followed by Sofia Kamke (Santa Catarina, Brazil/Escola Tecnica do Vale do Itajai) who posted a double-double with 12 kills and 16 digits. Tori Borton (Fort Myers, Fla./Fort Myers) dished out 31 assists in the match.

The Chargers splitting the day return to the Dana Center to take on the hosts and NE10 conference foe, the Falcons of Bentley University in their final match of the tournament. The Falcons and Chargers tip off from the Dana Center on Saturday, September 14 at 6:00 pm. All updates, schedules, and post-match recaps for the team will be available at Newhavenchargers.com.