By Jewel Della Valle
The clock struck midnight on the volleyball team’s almost fairytale-like season with a devastating loss to Hofstra in the semifinal round of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament Saturday night.
Northeastern, marred by injuries to three star players, senior captain Kira Batura, CAA Rookie of the Year Caitlin Tittl and Leah Neubeck, was swept by the Pride (30-24, 30-16, 30-14) to end its run at the conference crown.
The Huskies never managed to take a lead in the match, falling behind quickly in each of the three games. The Pride took a 10-6 lead early in game one, while Northeastern managed to come within one point several times. Kills from junior outside hitter Brianna Seitz tied it at 22 and 23, and a kill from Tittl knotted the game at 24, but the Pride knocked off a 6-0 run to take game one.
The Huskies went down 17-6 in game two and never recovered, trailing by as many as 15 points to lose game two 30-16. Hofstra took another early lead in game three, going up 20-9 and steamrolled the Huskies for a 30-14 win and the match victory.
“I don’t know if it was a feeling of not feeling ready or it was just a really fast-paced match,” Batura said. “We were trying to play catch-up instead of worrying about playing our own game and feeling comfortable doing that.”
Junior outside hitter Lauren DeTurk took home team-highs with eight kills and 10 digs, while sophomore setter Jessica Tkachuk led the Huskies with 16 digs. Freshman setter Britney Brown contributed five kills and 15 assists, while Tittl had six kills and Seitz and junior opposite Sarah Stein had five.
The injuries to Neubeck and Batura were apparent in the match, as Neubeck typically takes home the team lead in digs, but totaled just two for the match. Batura, who often teams with DeTurk to lead the NU offense, had no kills and a -.333 attacking percentage, though she tallied seven digs in her final match as a Husky. As a team, Northeastern hit just .060 to the Pride’s .364 attacking percentage, while recording just two service aces and seven service errors.
“I don’t know if [the injuries] had a huge impact, but playing injured comes into play in the athlete’s mind,” Batura said. “People are little more wary and it’s in the back of their head that they’re injured. It’s not that they’re not giving their 100 percent, it’s just that they can’t, and they’re doing all that they can.”
Batura ends her Husky career as the all-time leader in digs with 1,450, shattering the previous record of 1,365 held by Chris Frein-Hale (1989-1991), and ninth all-time with 99 service aces. She was awarded All-CAA first team honors at the conference awards banquet Thursday night.
“It was sad. I wasn’t assuming that would be our last match; I thought we were still going to come back to Northeastern and have practice because we were going to be getting ready for the NCAAs,” Batura said. “It was really hard losing because we just came off with such a great season and I think we accomplished a lot. We could have gone a lot farther and done a lot more. We just didn’t have it.”
DeTurk, who was named to the All-CAA second team, led the team with 455 kills this season, while Batura totaled 299, Brown had 263, and Tittl had 249. Neubeck had a team-high 526 digs, with Batura ranking second at 438, and DeTurk third with 429. Tkachuk led the team with 744 assists, while Brown wasn’t far behind at 723. Northeastern finished the season at 19-13 (11-3 CAA), surpassing expectations by taking second place in the conference with just one senior and eight freshmen.
“I had hopes of getting to the CAA Championship and it believe that we could’ve, but I thought would’ve been a lot harder,” Batura said. “A lot of the new girls acclimated well and we had good team chemistry. [The season] was good because it was challenging and I feel like next year they will be in the championship match.”
