By: Nathan Vaughan, News Staff
The volleyball team split its trip to the South this weekend in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play.
The Huskies beat the University of North Carolina, Wilmington (UNCW) 3-0 Friday, however they dropped a crucial match Saturday in Atlanta, against Georgia State University (GSU).
The 3-1 loss drops Northeastern down to 13-8 (4-3 CAA) and into sixth place.
“We need to work harder in the next couple of weeks,” senior libero Jess LaScola said. “We look to prove ourselves that we are good enough to go to post season. The post season isn’t going to be handed to us, we have to work hard for it.”
The Huskies went to Wilmington to take on the Seahawks. Northeastern quickly defeated the Seahawks, who won only one conference match all season. The Huskies never trailed in the match and won the first set 25-16.
The Seahawks started the next set off strong, jumping out to a 5-0 lead. Northeastern battled back to tie 7-7 and won the set 25-15 after an 11-2 scoring run.
The third set was closer, but the Huskies held on to a thin 19-18 lead and completed their second CAA road sweep in as many matches, winning the set 25-20.
Head coach Ken Nichols said he was satisfied with his team’s ability to stay focused against UNC, despite the Seahawks 7-15 record.
“We did an excellent job staying on the game plan,” Nichols said. “UNC Wilmington isn’t the strongest team but they’ve shown they can play with anybody as well. It adds to the theory that there are no pushovers in conference.”
In Atlanta, Northeastern and GSU had a tight first set, but the Huskies went on a seven-point run to take an 18-8 lead and won 25-18. This was the seventh straight set the Huskies had won, all on the road.
The second set was close, but costly errors by Northeastern gave the Panthers the set. The Huskies pulled within one before losing 25-23.
After the break, the match stayed tight at 14 until GSU went on a 11-4 run, winning 25-18 to take a commanding 2-1 set lead.
In the fourth set, the Panthers jumped ahead 10-4 before Northeastern reeled them back in at 18-18 and even took the lead 20-18. However, GSU rallied and put it away 25-23.
The loss at Georgia State was the second road loss of the season. However, it might be costly since it is the tiebreaker between these two teams.
Northeastern sits in sixth place, but with tiebreakers, the Huskies need to win out to reach fourth place and get into the playoffs.
The Huskies return home for only their fourth and fifth home matches this season. They take on Towson at 5 p.m. tomorrow and then Delaware in a rematch of the 2008 CAA Championship game 1 p.m. Sunday.
“Delaware is a huge match just because they are a rival team, but we really need to focus on Towson,” senior captain, setter and opposite hitter Britney Brown said. “Because whether we beat Delaware or not we have to beat Towson. We could beat Delaware, and we could beat everybody but losing to Towson could keep us from going to the tournament.”
