By Jewel Della Valle
The volleyball team traveled south during the weekend to take on two conference foes and returned to Huntington Avenue victorious
The Huskies beat Georgia State in a hard-fought, five-game match Friday night and UNC-Wilmington in four games yesterday to make their record 10-10 (2-1 Colonial Athletic Association).
Georgia State out hit the Huskies .139 to .122, but Northeastern’s serve and serve-receive game is what made the difference, said senior captain Kira Batura.
“By serving and passing well it put pressure on them to have to try and serve just as tough and pass just as well and they couldn’t hang with us,” Batura said.
The Huskies totaled 11 service aces and just three service errors, while the Panthers had eight aces and 11 errors. Northeastern took games one and three, 30-24 and 30-25, respectively, but fell in games two and four, 30-25 and 30-28, respectively. The Huskies went on a 6-0 run in game five to break a tie at seven and make it 13-7 in favor of NU. Georgia State came back within four points to make it 14-10 and Batura put the game away with a kill to make it 15-10 and take the match.
“Georgia State played well, we played better,” Batura said. “We won by being aggressive and really wanting to win and taking the fifth game [and] not settling for another loss in conference.”
Northeastern got significant contributions from veterans and freshmen alike with Batura, junior outside hitter Lauren DeTurk, sophomore setter Jessica Tkachuk and freshman setter Britney Brown posting double-doubles.
DeTurk racked up a match-high 21 kills and had 19 digs while Batura had 18 kills and a match-high 30 digs. Tkachuk had a match-high 30 assists and tallied 17 digs and Brown took home 26 assists and 10 digs. She also contributed eight kills and freshman middle hitter Caitlin Tittl helped with 10 kills.
The Huskies took the momentum from Friday’s match into yesterday’s contest at UNC Wilmington, winning game one 30-26 and game two 30-24. After dropping game three, 26-30, Northeastern stepped up and took game four 30-19 and the match.
“We came into the match fired up because we had known that UNC Wilmington just beat Hofstra in three,” Batura said. “In the back of our heads, we thought that UNC Wilmington wouldn’t have been as tough as Georgia State, but we didn’t want to underestimate them because they just beat Hofstra. We were tired after traveling, but we went in hard and took care of business.”
Northeastern didn’t serve as well in the match (two aces and 12 errors) but had the attacking power to make up for it. DeTurk and Batura headed the Husky offense with double-doubles once more. DeTurk had a match-high 17 kills and had 14 digs while Batura had 16 kills and 19 digs. Tittl had 13 kills and freshman outside hitter Annalena Broscheit contributed eight kills. Tkachuk led the Huskies in assists with 38 and sophomore libero Leah Neubeck had a match-high 27 digs.
“We’re off to a good start even though we didn’t win against Hofstra,” Batura said. “Both of the wins from this weekend are going to really help for this coming weekend.”
Northeastern hosts a 7 p.m. match against James Madison (10-6, 2-1 CAA) Friday and will take on George Mason (8-7, 1-2 CAA) at 1 p.m. Sunday, at Solomon Court.
Last year, the Huskies faced both teams twice during regular season play. Northeastern swept George Mason 3-0 and 3-2 respectively.
James Madison holds the edge against the Huskies, defeating them twice last year, 1-3 both times.
