By Emily McCarthy, News Correspondent
The Northeastern volleyball team captured two come-from-behind wins this weekend over the University of North Carolina Wilmington and the College of Charleston. Charleston was undefeated in conference play before falling to the Huskies, who now hold a 9-3 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) record and an overall record of 17-9.
Freshman setter Jamie Bredahl and senior outside hitter Kelly Bacon earned CAA honors this week for their stellar performances in Northeastern’s victories. Bredahl garnered rookie of the week honors for the fourth time this season as she posted her fifth and sixth triple-doubles of the year in this weekend’s matches. Bacon won offensive player of the week by earning two double-doubles on the weekend.
“I feel like sometimes it just works in your favor,” Bacon said of her strong play. “I’ve been up and down as far as consistency goes but my hitting was really consistent and digging as well.”
The Huskies began Friday night’s match with a 25-23 win in the first set, but UNC Wilmington fought back with a second set victory by a score of 25-20.
With the match knotted at one set apiece, the Seahawks took a 21-17 lead in the third set. Northeastern battled back to bring the score to 24-21, but UNCW closed out the set on the next point and won 25-21.
Northeastern jumped out to a 11-5 lead in the fourth set and never looked back. The Huskies did not trail the Seahawks for the remainder of the frame and eventually won 25-21, tying the match once again.
The elimination set was back and forth until the very end. With the score tied at 20, a UNCW service error gave Northeastern a one-point advantage. With the set and the match on line, senior middle hitter Nichole Kurz recorded the kill for the Huskies that sealed the 22-20 set win and the 3-2 victory.
Head Coach Ken Nichols praised his team’s ability to perform under pressure in the final set.
“It was quite amazing,” he said. “The crowd was three feet away from the servers, screaming at the top of their lungs. They got up at 13-13 in the fifth set and they did not stop screaming at the top of their lungs, standing up from 13-13 to 22-20.”
The Huskies hoped they could carry the momentum from Friday’s win into Sunday’s match against the College of the Charleston, the only team ahead of Northeastern in the CAA standings.
Charleston came out strong and won the first two sets by close scores of 25-22 and 26-24. But the Huskies were not going to go down without a fight.
Bacon said the team used the time in between the second and third set to regroup and figure out a way to get back into the match.
“We knew what we could do as a team to be better and we knew what they were doing on the other side,” she said. “We really didn’t want to lose. We had two losses in the couple previous weeks and we just didn’t want to have another loss and knowing that we could win and we could come back was a driving factor.”
Northeastern took a 5-2 advantage early in the third set and never relinquished the lead. Charleston came within one point of the Huskies late in the frame, leaving NU with a slim 24-23 lead, but a Bacon kill closed out the third set by a 25-23 score.
The fourth set was more of the same for the Huskies as they took an early 8-2 lead and did not let up the rest of the set. Northeastern eventually won 25-21 and forced a deciding fifth set.
The score was even at seven in the elimination set, when the Huskies took control and dominated the remainder of the frame.
“I think all that confidence from the UNC Wilmington match really helped in the fifth set,” said Nichols. “Right until the switch, it was point for point for point, nobody was going to get away from anybody. And then all of sudden, we could do no wrong.”
Northeastern captured the next three points, taking a 10-7 lead and forcing Charleston to call a timeout. But NU won the next two points coming out of the huddle and the Cougars called time once again.
“The blocks weren’t good blocks,” Nichols said. “They were absolutely crowd-pleasing alley-oop slam dunk blocks. The digs in the fifth set were just unbelievable. Everything just was remarkable and enjoyable at the same time.”
Charleston only mustered one more point for the rest of the final set. The Huskies won by a final score of 15-8 to complete the 3-2 win, dethroning the first-place Cougars who were 11-0 in CAA action heading into Sunday’s match.
Bacon said that this come-from-behind win says a lot about the team.
“It says that we’re really persistent,” she said. “We won’t give up. I think other teams will see our persistence and our drive and our hard work and our heart and our want to win.”
The Huskies will be back in action at the Cabot Center Friday afternoon when take on James Madison University. A Sunday matinee at Cabot against the College of William and Mary wraps up the regular season action for Northeastern before the team heads to the CAA tournament on Nov. 22.
