By By Nathan Vaughan, News Staff
The UConn Huskies were top dogs last night as they defeated the women’s volleyball team, 3-2, in Storrs, Conn.
Northeastern is now 4-5 on the season after losing five of its previous six.
In a tough first set, Northeastern wasn’t able to put together a sustained offensive push. The offense had a tough time getting kills, only putting the ball down seven times and committing nine errors. UConn got 12 kills and only three errors.
Head coach Ken Nichols tried a new strategy of playing junior setter and opposite hitter Britney Brown, who was hampered with a leg injury, in the back row. Senior co-captain and libero Leah Neubeck led with seven digs in the set, which NU lost 25-11.
Northeastern bounced back quickly. The team started off strong with a Brown ace and raced ahead to score 6-2 before UConn was forced to take a timeout. Freshman middle Nicole Bishop went three for four on kills in the set with two block assists to lead Northeastern to an important 25-19 victory to even it at a set apiece.
‘It has been the setters practicing with me once again,’ Bishop said. ‘I really just have to make sure I am working hard and getting up on the hits so that I can make them look good, because it is not all about me by any means. It’s about them because they work to get that for me.’
The third set started off as a back-and-forth affair up to a 6-6 score. UConn pulled away with 13 kills and only one error. NU’s offense was unable to match with nine kills and errors in the set. Bishop led all participants with four kills in the set. UConn won the set 25-14.
Facing a decisive fourth set, NU started off forced a UConn timeout while leading 8-4. They kept the pressure up, frustrating the UConn coaching staff forcing them to take their second timeout with NU up 15-9. Northeastern led by as many as eight in the set before UConn came roaring back to cut the lead to as low as one.
Senior co-captain setter and opposite hitter Jessica Tkachuk was a dominant force with six kills in 11 swings and only one error. She added three service aces in the set. Northeastern held on to take the set 25-23.
‘I was trying really hard to not make as many hitting errors as I had been in the beginning,’ Tkachuk said. ‘Coach [Nichols] has been saying we have been serving soft so I thought that I might as well go for it. If I was going to miss I was at least maybe going to get some aces as well.’
The fifth set was another seesaw battle in the beginning. The teams traded points throughout the set. Northeastern led by as many as two in the set but was unable to hold on as UConn won 15-11 taking the match 3-2. It was the third straight loss to UConn by Northeastern.
Nichols compared the 3-2 loss to Saturday’s loss to Boston College.
‘I think [they were] two different kinds of five-set matches,’ Nichols said. ‘BC was absolutely serve-receive, and we struggled to pass the ball in that fifth game. In this one I think we got a bit out-muscled. If you look at the line items UConn had eight or nine kills and three errors ‘hellip; and we hit a big fat zero in that fifth game. It’s hard to win a race to fifteen if you aren’t hitting positive.’
The Huskies resume play tomorrow night in the three-game Dartmouth Invitational in Dartmouth, N.H.
