Nov. 21, 2009
BROOKLYN, NY - Sophomore Brittany Best
(Norco, CA) had her tenth double-double of the season wtih 12 kills
and 19 digs, while Ashlyn Trimble
(Temecula, CA) had ten kills, 11 digs and three service aces to
lead the Sacred Heart women's volleyball team to a 3-0 (25-18,
30-28, 25-17) win over third-seeded Central Connecticut in the
Northeast Conference Tournament Saturday afternoon.
Sophomore Jessica Colberg
(Long Beach, CA) had a career-high 36 digs to lead the Pioneer
defense. That total eclipsed her single-season school record and
gives her 486 this year.
Sacred Heart, 23-10, took control of the first set from the
start by opening a 10-4 lead, but Central battled back to tie it at
15-15. The Pioneers took the next four points, three of them off
the serve of Best, to take the momentum back and cruise to a 25-18
win.
The second set was epic and saw the Blue Devils battle back from
a 15-8 deficit and tie the game at 15-15, using six straight points
off the serve of Amanda Bayer. The game was tied at 22-22 when
Central used a kill by Emily Cochran and a SHU attack error to earn
a set point at 24-22.
The Pioneers weren't ready to throw in the towel, however, and
won the next three points to get a set point of their own. A
Trimble ace and a Maile
Hetherington (Thousand Oaks, CA) gave SHU the edge. Trimble
faulted on her set-point serve to tie the game again. In fact, SHU
would get four more set points before finally putting the game away
30-28 on a Trimble kill.
The loss of the second set seemed to take the fight out of the
Blue Devils and the Pioneers jumped on them to a 6-0 lead in the
third. A kill from freshman Johanna Ovsenek
(London, Ontario) got the ball rolling and Colberg won five
straight points on her serve. Freshman Elise Sage (Greenwood
Village, CO) had three kills in the Colberg run.
SHU took that early lead and built it into a 16-8 advantage, and
finally stretching it to 20-11 on an ace from Courtney
Kidd-Kadlubek (Santa Barbara, CA). A kill by Ovsenek put the
match away, 25-17.
The win puts the Pioneers in the NEC title match for the first
time in school history. SHU will take on the top-seeded Blackbirds
of host LIU at 1:00 on Sunday.
