The Northeastern University volleyball team suffered its first two losses of CAA play, falling on the road in straight sets to University of North Carolina-Wilmington, or UNCW, and College of Charleston.
The losses mark the end of a 10-game winning streak for the Huskies (15-8, 8-2 CAA), who battled with UNCW in the first set Friday and were narrowly ousted.
“It’s a testament toward how competitive the conference is in general,” fourth-year setter Kristen Walding said. “UNCW is technically in the bottom half of the conference, but they are just as competitive as the rest of the teams.”
A service ace from second-year defensive specialist Clare Lund gave Northeastern a set point opportunity, but the Seahawks (8-15, 2-9 CAA) were able to strike back, extending the frame and eventually emerging, 28-26.
The Huskies held a 14-7 lead in the second but gave up nine of the next 10 points and again found themselves in a close set.
“It was weird and energetic and big risk and error laden – it was a lot like men’s volleyball,” head coach Ken Nichols said. “There was obviously a lot on the line for both teams.”
Three kills from second-year outside hitter Amy Underdown helped the team to rebuild a lead. The Huskies were a point away from winning the set but were unable to close the deal, allowing UNCW to sneak back in and gain a 26-24 edge.
Despite losing both matches in straight sets over the weekend, Underdown kept pace with her impressive play of late, registering 17 kills Friday and following that with 15 against College of Charleston.
“Each player who has gotten out there can have an enormous effect on the outcome of a set, and that was what was lacking through this weekend,” Nichols said. “Amy was well above average, but in each set, there’d be two people who were struggling, and two others who were just kind of doing okay. And we just needed one more exceptional swing here and there.”
The last time the Northeastern women had to play from two sets behind was in mid-September, in a thrilling comeback win against Boston College. On Friday, however, the Huskies were not able to shift the momentum back in their favor.
The third set was not as close as the first two, ending in a 25-20 defeat. The Seahawks built a strong lead midway through the frame, holding it till the end to complete the sweep.
“My point to [the team] was, we played good, [sic] because we had a bunch of sets that were close — but they played excellent,” Nichols said. “And the reality is right now we need to be playing excellent.”
On Saturday, the Huskies took on College of Charleston in a battle for first place in the CAA. Three consecutive points lifted Northeastern to a 13-5 advantage in the first set, but the Cougars (21-4, 10-1 CAA) took a timeout and then responded with an 8-1 run.
“We were just streaky,” Nichols said. “Other teams are finding a way to chip away. We’ve got to rely on those big runs to create distance from teams, but we need to make small runs as well and side out so that they’re not running on us.”
Facing set point, a block by Walding and first-year middle blocker Gabrielle Tschannen kept the Huskies alive, but the Cougars defused any potential comeback, landing a kill to end the set.
In the following frame, the Huskies struggled to gain footing as College of Charleston built up a 20-9 lead. The Northeastern attack was plagued with errors, and the Cougars extended their lead to go ahead 2-0 in the match.
“We definitely got stuck in rotations,” Nichols added. “Now, we had lost a few sets in a row, we tried to move some people around […] and it went over well in a couple of occasions, but for the most part we struggled a little bit with trying to coordinate new personnel.”
Late in the final frame, the Huskies only trailed by a point, but three kills from College of Charleston brought the match to a close.
“Something we need to work on is having more energy on the road,” Walding concluded.
The Huskies will have some time before they need to focus on that again, as they prepare for a home match against the University of Delaware Friday. Nichols said that the losses provoked a lot of thought about what the team needs to do moving forward.
“The best part of this weekend was getting the feedback from the players,” the coach said. “I’ve been getting text messages for the last 48 hours […] This year the players have been exceptional. They are very good at taking responsibility for what goes on out there.”
