New Haven Pulls Away for 3-0 Victory over Women's Volleyball Saturday Night
Links: Box Score | Game Highlights
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The Merrimack College women's volleyball team invited the University of New Haven – a perennial regional power – to Hammel Court on Saturday evening for a Northeast-10 Conference tilt, but saw the visiting Chargers pulled away for a 3-0 victory to improve to 3-0 in league play.
The Basics
Score: New Haven 3, Merrimack 0 (25-22 | 25-14 | 25-12)
Records: Merrimack (2-16, 1-3 NE-10) | New Haven (7-5, 3-0 NE-10)
Location: Hammel Court | North Andover, Mass.
How It Happened
- 1st set – The Navy and Gold started off strong, jumping out to a 5-2 advantage, thanks to a pair of kills from Jennifer Cain (Melrose, Mass.) and a service ace from Tara Stuhr (Huntington Beach, Calif.). The Chargers rebounded to pull ahead by three, 20-17, but three unanswered points from the Warriors knotted the frame at 20, and then a block from Stuhr and junior Mary Kate McCarroll (Harrison, Ohio) gave the hosts a lead. From there, the visitors won five of the set's final six points to prevail, 25-22
- 2nd set – New Haven set the tone in the middle set by winning nine of the first ten points. Freshman Catherine Flaherty (North Andover, Mass.) hit a kill the cut the deficit to six, 16-10, but that's as close as Merrimack got with the Chargers pulling away for a 25-14 victory
- 3rd set – Merrimack's best stretch of the final set came late in the frame, when junior Christina Nye (Plaistow, N.H.) and freshman Julia Stewart (Melville, N.Y.) catapulted the hosts to a 4-0 spurt, which featured a service ace from the former and back-to-back points from the later. The Chargers, however, rallied from there by winning six of the final seven sets and clinch the match, 25-12
Inside The Numbers
- Stuhr led all players from the setter position with 23 assists on 29 Merrimack kills. The senior captain's nine digs also ranked second on the team
- Nye extended her double-digit dig streak to four with a match-high 17. The junior libero has averaged 5.71 digs-per-set over her last 14 sets played
- New Haven had the edge in hitting percentage, particularly in the third set, when the Chargers totaled 15 kills on 31 attacks with only one error (.452)
- Alex Bussey led all players with 12 kills on 23 attacks, while Kristine Rios finished with a double-double for New Haven, totaling 10 kills and 18 helpers
Up Next
The Navy and Gold face a three-match week – all of which are on the road – beginning on Tuesday in Easton, Mass. at Stonehill at 7 p.m.
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