Box Score FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Sacred Heart women's volleyball team bounced back from its first Northeast Conference loss of the season with a sweep of St. Francis Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon at the Pitt Center. With the win, the Pioneers stay atop of the NEC standings with a 6-1 mark, improving to 12-7 overall.
Pulling away for 25-20 and 25-19 first and second set victories, SHU faced its biggest threat in the third. Two consecutive St. Francis Brooklyn (3-20, 0-7 NEC) points tied the set at 20 before the Pioneers answered with the final five points of the match. Tori Kemper both began and ended the stretch with a kill to seal Sacred Heart's ninth win in its last 11 matches.
Kemper was one of two Pioneers with double dig kills on the afternoon, one behind Bruna Bon who had a match-high 11. Bon also added a match-high 11 digs for her team best ninth double double of the season, while also hitting a season best .409.
As a team, Sacred Heart had its third best hitting match of the season with a .323 percentage, thanks in part
Katie Direnzo and
Allison Riggs hitting .625 and .500, respectively.
SHU will take a break from NEC play with the first of two consecutive non-conference matches on Tuesday at Stony Brook. The match is set to begin at 6 pm.
Noteworthy
- Kiki Robinson had a match-high 20 assists, with Lea Lieb adding 16 and a team and season-high four services aces.
- Riggs had a season-high with seven kills while also leading the Pioneers with two block assists.
- Sacred Heart set season-highs in a three set match with 46 kills and 44 assists.
- SHU has now swept five opponents, while only having been swept once.
- The Pioneers have won 11 straight matches over St. Francis Brooklyn dating back to 2010.
How it Happened
- Tied at six, the fifth tie of the set already, Sacred Heart scored five points in a row behind the serving of Direnzo to take control of the set. Following two consecutive SFBK errors, Direnzo provided a service ace before a Riggs kill and another Direnzo ace made the score 11-6. The Terriers would pull with two, 11-9, but SHU scored three unanswered this time, capped by a Sarah Krufka kill making the score 14-9, to ultimately pull away.
- Falling behind 5-3 early, SHU responded with the longest run of the game, seven straight points thanks to the serving of Lieb. After a Direnzo kill started the run, Lieb provided two aces in the stretch, which also included two Terrier errors and kills from Maddie Losure and Kemper.
