Volleyball Hangs With First-Place Stonehill, Falls 3-0
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The Merrimack volleyball team hung tough with the first-place Stonehill Skyhawks but they were unable to come up with the crucial points as they were downed 3-0 in front of the home crowd at Volpe Gym on Tuesday Night. The loss drops Merrimack to 3-13 (0-4 NE-10).
Game scores against Stonehill: 25-22, 25-18, 25-21.
Set one was evenly contested early on by both sides as the score was knotted at five. Merrimack was unable to hang with the Skyhawks who used a 12-5 run in the middle of the set to propel them to the 25-22 victory in the opening frame. Jenna Reilly (Northport, N.Y.) and Stephanie Sheehan (Smithtown, N.Y.) played well offensively with three kills apiece.
Set two was dominated throughout by the Skyhawks as their offense was firing on all cylinders. Stonehill's attack percentage as a team for the set was .346 compared to Merrimack's .083, which made the difference for the set. Junior
Brianna Trabucco (Canton, Mass.) led the way for the Warriors with eight assists in the set.
The third set looked promising for the Warriors as they led by the score of 6-1 right off the bat but they were unable to hold onto the lead down the stretch and lost the set by the score of 25-21. Merrimack's attack percentage of .324 was higher than the .273 of Stonehill but timely errors cost the Warriors the set.
Merrimack was given strong performances by Trabucco who recorded a team-high 26 assists on the night. Reilly led the way offensively as she recorded 10 kills on the night.
Nicole Duarte (Windham, N.H.) was a consistent presence all night as she tallied seven kills with an attack percentage of .353. Sheehan recorded 10 digs to go along with her five kills.
The Skyhawks were propelled to victory by Sydney Maxey who recorded a match-high 18 kills to go along with seven digs. Emily Iverson and Erin Kelly led the way defensively for Stonehill as they both recorded a match-high 14 digs.
"We competed out there tonight with a very good team," said head coach TJ Hajjar. "We just fell short in scoring the key points that we needed to win sets."
Merrimack (3-13, 0-4 NE-10) will return to the home court on Thursday at 7 p.m. with a conference showdown against Southern Connecticut State.
