By: Nathan Vaughan, News Staff
The volleyball team will start its Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) season following the emotional surge of a two game winning streak.
“The last two wins is going to help us with momentum going into the conference,” said Janelle Tucker, freshman outside hitter.
The Huskies participated in the The Seton Hall Invitational from Sept. 17 to 18 and kicked off the weekend against Western Michigan. The Huskies got off to a slow start, but were able to make it close before dropping the first set by a score of 25-22. Northeastern kept the momentum going into the second set building a 12-9 lead. That lead disappeared and the Broncos took the second set 25-20. The third set saw an even bigger lead for Northeastern but again the Huskies were unable to hold on, losing 27-25. The loss dropped the Huskies to 0-4 in tournament openers for the season.
Tucker led the way with 14 kills and 12 digs. Senior captain, setter and opposite hitter Britney Brown also tallied a double-double, falling one kill short of a triple-double.
The team rebounded strong taking on the University of Maryland Baltimore County. The first set never seemed to be in question as the Huskies steamrolled the Retrievers by a score of 25-18. Set number two was more even; there were multiple times when the game was tied up but the Huskies were able to rebound and finish off UMBC 27-25. In the rubber match of the game, Northeastern jumped out early and never looked back. They were able to get up 18-6 and eventually won 25-12.
Brown had her second double-double of the tournament, while Tucker added 12 digs and seven kills to her tournament totals.
The final game of the tournament was against host Seton Hall. Freshman setter Ina Kamenova continued her strong serving getting the Huskies out to a quick 4-0 lead. Seton Hall made it interesting for a little while but was no match in the end with the Pirates losing 25-16.
The second set was all Huskies. Northeastern led 14-10 and finished on a 11-3 run to win 25-13. The Pirates preserved some dignity by disrupting the Huskies game, taking the third set by a score of 25-16. In the fourth set, Seton Hall stuck with Northeastern until the 16-16 mark where the Huskies took over to take the set 25-19. This victory improved the road record to an impressive 5-1 with the only loss coming to then No. 15 in the nation, Colorado State University.
“Not much is going to change for us as a team,” Head Coach Ken Nichols said. “We are going to continue to do what we do well: focusing on winning the next point and the match will come.”
The win also improved the Huskies’ overall record to 9-5. Going into conference play the Huskies have a pair of nationally ranked players. Senior libero Jessica LaScola sits at 51st in the nation in digs per set with 4.9, a mere .01 out of the top 50. Also ranked is freshman outside hitter Kelly Bacon in hitting percentage. She is hitting .298 on the season, which is 234th nationally.
CAA play starts with a trip to Virginia Commonwealth tomorrow. The game is in Mechanicsville, Va., at Hanover high school at 7 p.m. The next day the Huskies travel to Williamsburg, Va., to take on William & Mary.
