After losing with a score of 1-3 to the College of Charleston (13-10, 6-6 CAA) Nov. 6, the Northeastern women’s volleyball team (11-11, 7-5 CAA) came back with a score of 3-0 in Sunday’s game, Nov. 7, at Cabot Center. 

Senior Day, an annual event where the graduating Huskies are honored, took place before the game officially started on Sunday. Setter Samantha Shupe,  middle-blocker Gabrielle Tschannen, and outside hitter Amanda Guasti-Nugent  were presented with bouquets of flowers, framed jerseys and rounds of applause from both sides of the court and spectators.

The Huskies starting lineup consisted of junior Erica Staunton, freshman Jessica Frannea, junior Anya Korbut, sophomore Marika Virthe, sophomore Defne Arliel, freshman Rafaella Lepenioti and freshman Sahitya Krishnamurthy. 

The Cougars starting lineup consisted of Claire Campbell, Jasmin Goei, Molly Russell, Brooke Harris, Tynley Smeltzer, Lexi Wierzbicki and Gabi Bailey. 

The Huskies started off strong in the first set. When a timeout was called by the Cougars 15 minutes into the game, the Huskies were leading 11-7. 

Arliel, an outside hitter, made kill-after-kill throughout the first set, totaling 10 at the end of the game. Staunton, also an outside hitter, continued her streak of high kill amounts with 11 kills throughout the entire game. 

Charleston came back with a lead in the first set at 16-15 before NU called a timeout. The two teams, however, went back and forth and were able to keep the score within a point of each other for the rest of the first set. One last timeout was called by NU with the score tied at 23-23. 

With home court advantage, the Huskies took the first set with a final score of 26-24. Arliel made the final kill that landed right in the center of the Cougar’s court and gave the Huskies the win. 

The second set started off strong with NU taking the lead right away. Charleston, however, was not far behind and quickly tied up the game, which was a consistent theme for the rest of the second set.

NU quickly broke that tie and went on to gain a five point lead before Charleston called for a timeout.

Smeltzer, Charleston freshman outside hitter, made a bad set which boosted the score in NU’s favor to 14-11, minutes before Charleston called another timeout. 

NU continued their lead throughout the entire second set and finished with a score of 25-20. 

The third set continued the theme of constant lead changes. Only a few minutes into the set, NU and Charleston were already tied at 5-5. 

With the game tied at 22-22, it was an intense few rounds of back and forth between both sides of the court. In the final few minutes of the game, NU made some amazing plays that consisted of multiple blocks against attacks from Charleston which led to the final set ending with a score 26-24 NU.

With only two more games left before the start of the CAA Championships, this game proves extremely important to the conference standings. NU and Charleston are vying for the last two spots above the tournament cut line. 

As of Nov. 7, the CAA conference standings are as follows: Towson University (21-3, 9-3 CAA), James Madison University (15-5, 9-3 CAA), Elon University (14-10, 7-5 CAA), Hofstra University (13-10, 7-5 CAA), then NU and Charleston. 

The team will next face off against Towson Nov. 13 in Maryland.