Volleyball Falls Short Against St. Michael's 3-1
NORTH ANDOVER, MA –The Merrimack volleyball team was upended by the Saint Michael's Purple Knights by the score of 3-1 on Tuesday night in front of the home crowd at the Volpe Gym. The loss drops the Warriors record to 3-10 (0-2 NE-10) on the season.
Game scores against Saint Michael's: 18-25, 16-25, 25-22, 21-25.
Merrimack started off set one slow as they were down 11-4 early on and they could not overcome the early deficit as they were downed 25-18. Saint Michael's had 12 kills in set one to Merrimack's seven.
Set two was dominated by Saint Michael's throughout as they went on to a commanding 25-16 victory. Merrimack came out in set three and played some of the best volleyball they have all year as they won the set by the score of 25-22. Merrimack was led by sophomore
Jackie Jones (Amherst, N.H.) in set three as she had a set-high six kills. Setter
Brianna Trabucco (Canton, MA) also played well in set three as she had a set-high 15 assists as well.
Set four was tightly contested throughout but the 12-6 deficit to start off the set was too much for Merrimack to handle as the Purple Knight's put away the match by the score of 25-21. Merrimack struggled offensively as the Purple Knights attack percentage was .221 compared to Merrimack's .144.
The Warriors were led on the night by Jones who recorded a team-high 21 digs and 12 kills, recording a double-double in her first action in four matches
. Jenna Reilly (Northport, N.Y.) continued her solid play with a team-high 16 kills. Trabucco chipped in with 34 assists and 12 digs. Freshman
Stephanie Sheehan (Smithtown, N.Y.) played solid defensively with 11 digs and four kills.
The Purple Knight's were led on the night by Chelsey Covitz who recorded a match-high 17 kills and Jess McLeod who had 38 assists.
"We started off slow tonight in set one and set two," said head coach TJ Hajjar. "We finally caught our groove in set three and played the best volleyball we have all season. Although it is a loss, it is promising to me because this is the first time we had our whole team out there and we started to gel as one in sets three and four."
Merrimack (3-10, 0-2 NE-10) will return to the home court tomorrow as they will host UMass Lowell in a non-conference matchup at 7 p.m.
