Box Score

BRONX, N.Y. – In its best offensive match of the season so far, the Northeastern women's volleyball team stormed over Fairleigh Dickinson 3-1 (25-9, 25-11, 23-25, 25-20) to claim the team's second win in the 2014 Rose Hill Classic on Friday, Sept. 5. The Huskies finished the day a perfect 2-0 in tournament play after defeating Rider earlier Friday morning 3-1.
 
Four players for Northeastern (3-2) ended the match with hitting percentages over .350, most notably sophomore Caterina Rosander who had nine kills on 15 attacks without an error, earning a hitting percentage of .600. Freshman outside hitter Brigitte Burcescu led the Huskies with 20 kills on 42 attacks (.357), while also grabbing 9 digs and 4 blocks on the defensive end. Cherylain Dizon also slammed home 14 kills on 23 attacks (.435), and Taylor Reiter had 7 kills on 14 attacks (.429).
 
Jamie Bredahl walked off the court with her third double-double of the season, leading the team with 35 assists while sporting 13 digs. Natalia Skiba tagged 23 digs of her own, and defensive specialist Megan Kehoe also contributed 12 digs to what was a season-high 76-dig night for Northeastern.
 
Allison Butler achieved the lone double-double for Fairleigh Dickinson (1-5), finding her teammates 25 times and collecting 12 digs. The Knights had three players with six kills in the match.
 
The first game of the match spelled all offense for Northeastern, as the Huskies exploded right out of the gate. Burcescu started the match with a perfect 4 kills in 4 attacks, and NU scored seven unanswered points to jump out in front 8-2.
 
The lead continued to grow for the Huskies as Walding set Dizon up for kills on three consecutive points, part of another six-point run that gave NU a 15-4 edge. Fairleigh Dickinson had no answer to the Husky attackers, who combined for 17 kills on 28 attacks in the first, good enough for a team hitting percentage of .500. Northeastern ran away with a lopsided 25-9 first game and 1-0 lead in the match.
 
Unable to stop the Husky offense, Fairleigh Dickinson fell victim to another 8-2 opening run by Northeastern to start the second game. The run consisted of six kills from four different players, along with an ace by Skiba. Key attacking errors by NU led Fairleigh Dickinson back into the game at 12-8, but the Huskies would dominate on the offensive end, scoring 13 of the final 16 points in the game to secure a 2-0 lead.
 
Despite trailing by two sets, Fairleigh Dickinson put up more of a fight in the third. A kill by Madisen Phipps and an ace by Deborah Hong triggered an offensive run for the Knights that landed them six out of eight points, and a 9-6 lead. After an ace by Northeastern's Reiter made it 9-8, Fairleigh Dickinson won eight of the next 11 points to lead the Huskies 17-11, causing head coach Ken Nichols to burn one of his two timeouts.
 
But Northeastern responded after the break with separate five and four point runs to come back and lead the game 20-19. Up 22-21, an attack error by Reiter brought FDU all even at 22-22, and kills by Carly O'Sullivan and Hanifa Addi gave the Knights a set point that they would later cash in on a service error by Bredahl.
 
Leading 2-1 in the match, Northeastern went back to their strategy from the first two games, cruising to a 6-3 lead. Fairleigh Dickinson would tie the game at 7-7, but the Husky offense would not sit down, as NU would go on a 12-4 run that put the end of the match within reach. Fairleigh Dickinson would cut the deficit as close as four, but an emphatic kill by Burcescu from Asada sealed a 25-20 game and a four-set victory for the Huskies.
 
Northeastern plays its final match of the 2014 Rose Hill Classic against host Fordham Saturday, Sept. 6, at 1 p.m.