Box Score DURHAM, N.H. – The Northeastern women's volleyball team drained all the energy from New Hampshire's gym on Tuesday night, Sept. 16, flattening UNH 3-1 (21-25, 25-15, 25-11, 25-9) in the Wildcats' home opener. The Huskies' win snapped New Hampshire's 10-match winning streak at home, and also extended Northeastern's streak of consecutive wins at Lundholm Gymnasium from four to five.
Head coach
Ken Nichols handed the keys to Northeastern's offense over to
Brigitte Burcescu and
Jamie Bredahl who collected 20 and 14 kills, respectively. Burcescu drilled a hitting percentage of .381 in the match, and Bredahl added a team-high 20 digs to her stat line.
Middle hitters
Caterina Rosander and
Hannah Fry rounded out a strong attacking game for the Huskies. Rosander netted six kills and one error on eight attacks (.625), while Fry landed six kills and two errors on 15 attacks (.257) to go with three blocks.
Seniors
Natalia Skiba and
Megan Kehoe had complete control of the Northeastern back court, combining for 31 digs in the match. Freshman setter
Kristen Walding tagged 43 assists on the night, and has earned 99 assists in her last two matches.
Kills were hard to come by after the first set for New Hampshire (4-8), as Tori Forrest and Demi Muses each had nine and eight, respectively, for the Wildcats. Madison Lightfoot grabbed 18 digs, while Taylor Dunklau posted 17 assists to lead UNH.
Northeastern (6-5) had difficulty attacking right out of the gate, as New Hampshire rode the adrenaline of opening night out to a 7-3 first set lead. The Huskies would score three out of the next four points to pull within two at 9-7, and countered back-to-back UNH points with a pair of kills by Walding and Bredahl to trail only 11-9.
After capitalizing on two UNH errors, Northeastern surrendered three straight kills to the Wildcats who had strung together a 5-2 run to go up 17-12. Walding would set up Bredahl and Rosander to cut the deficit to three at 18-15, but a kill by Muses followed by an ace gave UNH a 20-15 lead, and made Nichols decide to slow the run down by calling timeout.
Northeastern responded out of the break with three unanswered to bring the score to 20-18, but UNH rattled off five of the last eight points to take the opening set 25-21.
Both teams were locked in a chess match to start the second set, as NU broke a 3-3 tie scoring three out of the next four points, only to be countered by New Hampshire who threw down three straight kills to tie the set back at 7-7.
Taylor Reiter's ace was matched by a kill from Muses, but the Huskies would soon score six out of the next eight points to lead 14-10 and force a UNH timeout.
The timeout was to no avail, as Northeastern broke open the set with a streak of six unanswered points to lead 19-12, and three more kills from Bredahl would assure the Huskies a 25-15 win and a split of the first two games.
Despite conceding the first two points of the third set to the Wildcats, NU stormed back with a 7-1 run on five kills to command an early four point advantage. New Hampshire would close the gap as close as three at 10-7 before Northeastern unleashed another 7-1 run to build a 17-8 lead. The Huskies continued their nearly flawless play late in the set, ending the third set with three kills by
Carmen Costa, Fry, and Bredahl to lead UNH 2-1 in the match.
The Wildcats kept the fourth set close to start at 3-3, but NU threw together eight out of the next ten points to lead 11-5. Strong defensive plays from Skiba and Bredahl gave the Huskies repeated chances to run their offense, and NU cashed in on four more kills to eventually go up 16-8.
With the match in hand, Nichols made sure all 14 of his players saw playing time, and the Huskies ran away with eight of the last nine points in the match to take the set 25-9, and the match 3-1.
Northeastern returns home to Cabot Center this weekend for back-to-back home matches against Boston College (Friday, 7 p.m.) and Harvard (Saturday, 7 p.m.).
