By Ari Strait
Consecutive three game sweeps of visiting University of Connecticut and Hartford University provided a necessary morale boost after the Huskies (10-13, 2-1 America East) dropped their first match of the weekend, a 3-2 decision against the Stony Brook Seawolves.
Northeastern broke out to a 4-0 lead in the first game, and never gave up the lead. NU had coordinated a three-pronged attack with freshman Larissa Adomat, sophomore Rebecca Holland and senior Lindsay Wagner in constant motion, one always ready to back the other up. The trio finished with 35 of the team’s 49 kills.
The Northeastern Huskies took game one easily, 30-22. In the second game, Connecticut’s defense began to close down some of the scoring lanes, and the offense began to use senior Christine Lambert more effectively, and at one point had the game tied 20-20. However, inaccurate serving and spiking proved to be too much of an obstacle to overcome, and Northeastern took 10 of the next 13 points to win game two 30-23.
Northeastern dominated game three. Led by Wagner and setter Kristin Ursillo, NU took the final game 30-18, and the match 3-0.
Myers was disappointed in her team’s efforts.
“We played extremely inconsistent. We didn’t serve well, and we didn’t pass well. We did not perform well at all,” said UConn head coach Kelli Myers. “Northeastern’s energy was better, and Ursillo did a great job.”
Adomat, who finished with 10 kills and a .444 hitting percentage, attributed the victory to an all-around team effort.
“We’ve been working really hard. The whole team put in something different. Everyone just came together,” she said.
Like Myers, Northeastern head coach Ken Nichols deferred a lot of the credit to the offense, and especially assistant coach Colleen Lee’s leadership.
“Colleen’s been with me for seven years, so she knows the system. When she’s on with the offense, she will paint a Monet, and use Kristin as the brush,” he said.
Ursillo finished the game with a well balanced performance, tallying 40 assists, six kills, a .357 hitting percentage, and both of the team’s solo blocks.
On Saturday, the Huskies had run right over the Hartford University Hawks, having four different players finish with double-digit kill totals, and as a team, had an offense attack twice as effective as their opposition, doubling the Hawks’ hitting percentage.
Nichols credited the victory to the Huskies’ ability to take advantage of the Hawks’ weaknesses.
“Hartford is a little weak in the middle. We just kept shoveling to Erin [Spangler] and Larissa. They’re not strong blockers, so it was our gameplan to hit down the middle,” he said.
Friday’s match against the Stony Brook Seawolves had not gone nearly as well. The Huskies tore through visiting Stony Brook 30-12 in the first game, but in the second game, lost both Adomat and senior Kelly Cognac to injuries.
Having lost the America East conference leader in kills per game, as well as the America East conference leader in digs per game, the Huskies struggled to a victory in game two, but then dropped the next three for their first conference loss of the year.
While Adomat was only out for that match, Cognac was found to be playing with a stress fracture of her right tibia and will be out for at least the next four weeks.
Rather than make excuses, Nichols decided to take the best he could out of such a disappointing defeat.
“When you lost the number one hitter in the conference, and the number one defender in the conference, it can make any team tougher. We became a far more humble team. Its nice to know we can battle with the rest of our roster,” he said.
