Box Score FAIRFIELD, CONN – The Sacred Heart women's volleyball team snapped a two-match losing streak with a sweep of Saint Francis U on senior day at the William H. Pitt Center on Sunday afternoon. The Pioneers are now one game behind Northeast Conference co-leaders Bryant and LIU Brooklyn with a league record of 9-3, and 15-11 overall, with two games remaining.
After taking the first two sets, the Pioneers came out strong in the third, scoring five of the first six points, before Saint Francis U would respond with a 5-2 run to make it 7-6. From there, SHU would take control of the set with an 11-3 stretch, including two separate runs of five consecutive points. The first stretch began after SFU pulled within one, and was sparked by three Red Flash errors. Sacred Heart then capped the run with five more unanswered behind back-to-back kills by Sarah Krufka to go ahead 18-9, and the Red Flash would not get within five the remainder of the set.
Sacred Heart nearly doubled up Saint Francis in kills at 43-22, and outhit the Red Flash .266 to .039. Senior
Katie Direnzo led the the Pioneers, hitting .500, while
Allison Riggs was right behind her at .429. The two had seven and eight kills, respectively, with Krufka leading the way with ten on .360 hitting. In the last home match of her career, senior
Bruna Bon led SHU with 13 digs.
Kiki Robinson tallied a match-high 20 assists.
For Saint Francis (4-24, 2-10), Hannah Kutny had a match-best 15 digs, and Chelsea Easter had a team high seven kills.
The Pioneers close their regular season schedule next weekend with two matches in Brooklyn, First, SHU will take on the league leading Blackbirds, who stand at 10-2 in the NEC, on Saturday the at 1 pm before ending the year at St. Francis Brooklyn at 1 pm.
Noteworthy
- With 10 digs, Ana Gonzalez moved into fifth place on SHU's all-time list with 1,046 for her career.
- With 40 team assists, Sacred Heart now has the fourth most team assists in a single season in program history with 1,334.
- The Pioneers are 6-2 in 3 set matches
- SHU's third senior, Karly Shockey, had four kills and two digs.
First Set
The Pioneers fell behind 2-1 before scoring six unanswered run to make it 7-2. Following a Saint Francis timeout, Sacred Heart capped a 12-3 run with a service ace from Direnzo, which made the score 13-5. The Red Flash were able to bring it to within 5, trailing 15-10, but SHU would regain control with yet another run of six points in a row to make it 21-10. Tori Kemper, who had two kills in the second 6-0 run, led the way with all seven of her kills in the first and a hitting percentage of .375.
Second Set
Trailing 5-3 early, SHU would take the lead on a 6-1 run to go ahead 9-6. From there, the Pioneers would match their biggest lead of the set at 16-10 thanks to four straight points capped by a Riggs kill. After trading points to make the score, 18-10, Saint Francis U scored six of the next eight points to pull within two. The Red Flash also got as close as two at 22-20, before Sacred Heart would close out the second set with the final three points, taking advantage of two Red Flash errors.
