By Jewel Della Valle
Composure and control were the keys to the volleyball team’s sweep of James Madison last Friday night, but they couldn’t carry the win over to Sunday, where they dropped a hard-fought match to George Mason.
Northeastern (11-11, 3-2 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA)) is in a three-way tie for third place with George Mason and Hofstra, while Delaware and William ‘ Mary sit atop the CAA tied at 4-1 in conference play.
Game one of Friday’s match was a tough battle between the Huskies and JMU, with Northeastern leading for most of the game. The Dukes briefly took a 23-22 lead late in the game, but Northeastern came storming back to break a tie at 23 and take the win, 30-24. The Huskies also led for most of game two, winning a tie breaker at 15 to take the lead, going on to win the match 30-28.
“We just stayed focused and made sure to focus on the game plan and stay in control of what was going on on our court,” said freshman setter Britney Brown.
James Madison looked rejuvenated after the 10 minute break between games two and three, taking a 10-8 lead the Huskies squashed during a 6-0 run to make it 14-10. But Northeastern let the Dukes catch up once again, and JMU led three times until a kill by senior captain Kira Batura broke a tie at 23, giving the Huskies a lead they never relinquished for the 30-27 game win and match victory.
“I’d like to say part of it’s coaching, but I’ve been around long enough to know it’s more than likely the lessons that we’ve learned so far,” said head coach Ken Nichols. “We really took everything from the last six weekends and played it out there in every aspect of the game.”
Northeastern barely out hit the Dukes (.160 to .129), but committed only six service errors and had five service aces. JMU also had five service aces, but totaled 11 service errors, four coming in game two.
“We stayed really controlled and kept our composure, even when times were rough,” said sophomore setter Jessica Tkachuk. “Staying in control is what did it for us.”
Tkachuk led the Huskies with 20 sets. Junior outside hitter Lauren DeTurk continued to lead the NU offense with another double-double, totaling 12 kills and 15 digs, and Batura had a Husky-high 18 digs and six kills.
It was George Mason who controlled Sunday’s match-up, at least for the first two games, which the Patriots took 30-24 and 30-22. But Northeastern clawed its way back to tie the match at 2, with wins in games three and four, 30-21 and 30-22. In game five, the Huskies committed seven errors to help the Patriots to a 15-11 win, snapping NU’s four-game winning streak.
“They had us in pretty good control in the first two games and then we controlled them easily in the next two games,” Nichols said. “It was just one of those very strange roller-coaster kind of rides and we thought we had enough momentum in the fifth game, but we were a little tentative early on
