Sept. 27, 2006
Final Stats
The Sacred Heart women's volleyball team played their second-consecutive five game match Wednesday night but once again came up just short losing at the University of Hartford, 3-2, in the second meeting between the two teams this season. Hartford won the second game 30-22, the fourth game 30-23 and the final game 15-12 with the Pioneers picking up victories in game one, 28-30 and game three, 27-30.
The lose drops SHU to 1-12 on the season while the Hawks remain perfect at home this year and improve to 7-5 overall.
The Hawks opened the match impressive with a 12-3, forcing the Pioneers to regroup with a time out. The Pioneers pulled the lead to 15-11 with five-straight points, two of which came on kills from Tiffany Phoenix (Cresskill, NJ). The Hawks went up 26-23 before the Pioneers tied things up at 27 on an error. A kill from Christine Duffy (Massapequa, NY) put things to rest in the first game with the Pioneers taking the early lead in the match.
The Hawks again started hot with a 7-2 lead and the closest that the Pioneers would come was 16-10 on a Phoenix kill. Three straight service aces for Erin Macro gave the Hawks a 10 point advantage, 25-15. Macro would end the game with a pair of kills to tie the match at one game a piece.
Coming out of the longer break, the Hawks struggled, allowing the Pioneers to take an 11-2 lead. Hartford pulled to within two, 16-17, and then tied the score at 23 and took a 24-23 lead on a kill from Ljiljana Zecevic. After a Hawks error tied the score at 27, the Pioneers rattled off the final three points.
The teams played back-and-forth for the 18 points of the forth game with the Hawks pulling away using small runs of three and four points. The biggest lead of the game came at 22-14, following a pair of attack errors for the Pioneers. Hartford then closed the book on the fourth game, forcing the deciding game with a kill from Macro.
The deciding game was back and forth throughout, until the Hawks scored the final four points of the game on a Macro kill, a pair of errors on Sacred Heart and a service ace for Monroy to end the match.
The Pioneers were led by senior captain Charnette Porter (Framingham, MA) who finished with 14 kills in 31 attempts with just four errors, a .323 hitting percentage. Freshman Annie Archer chipped in with 11 kills in the loss adding four total blocks and three service aces to her totals.
SHU had three players notch over 20 digs in the match led by junior Sam McMillan (Manassas, VA) with 23. Both Duffy and sophomore Katie Thomas (Wappingers Falls, NY) added 22 to the defensive efforts. Defensive specialist Lynne Principio (Ardsley, NY) added 15 to the mix.
The Pioneers will close out their tournament play this weekend at the Long Island Blackbird Holiday Inn Express Challenge. SHU will be facing LIU, South Dakota State and Virginia Commonwealth.
