By Nathan Vaughan
The volleyball team rolled to another win Tuesday night, this time with a 3-0 victory against New Hampshire. Once again, they did it in straight sets.
With the win, the Huskies are a perfect 4-0 against New England teams, with a 12-0 mark for sets. They finish off their non-conference schedule at 6-7, tying them with Hofstra for fourth in the Colonial Athletic Conference (CAA).
“New Hampshire threw everything they had at us but they still just couldn’t get on top of us in the score,” said head coach Ken Nichols. “It’s nice to be able to fight a team off and wait for the opportunity to get a run. We were fortunate that the runs were early in the first two sets and gave us a big cushion. There wasn’t any sort of lapse anywhere in the match.”
The first set started with five ties up to the 10 point mark. NU started to dominate, at one point going on a 10-2 run broken up by two serving errors. This set was the only time UNH held a lead all match – leading for a total of 12 points at the beginning of the set. During the set sophomore hitter and opposite hitter Britney Brown had four service aces, including a stretch of three in a row. Brown also had two kills. The Huskies put together a second 10-2 run to end it, winning by a score of 25-15.
At the start of the second set, Northeastern continued to dominate, starting with a 4-0 run. UNH never got closer than two points at the 5-3 mark. The Huskies committed only one hitting error, and with a hitting percentage of .526 they outhit the Wildcats by well over .400. The Huskies beat UNH by an 11-point margin with the 25-14 victory.
Near the end of the second set, a UNH player, Jayde Huxtable, was taken off the court on a stretcher due to a head injury.
The Huskies started the third set hot, scoring five unanswered points. New Hampshire refused to give up in the last set, and kept the match interesting until the 13-point mark. After that, NU ended the match on a 12-5 streak. Northeastern proved too much for New Hampshire and won the set 25-17.
“It felt like we were in system the whole time and that we were the ones that were in control of the match the whole time,” said sophomore outside hitter Caitlin Tittl. “We were really at the top of our game this match and we all really played well.”
Sophomore setter and opposite hitter Britney Brown starred in the match. She recorded a double-double in kills and sets, with 10 and 14 respectively. Brown also delivered with five service aces and six digs. Senior opposite hitter Sarah Stein continued her stellar return from jaw surgery with five kills and zero errors, hitting at .714. Tittl also had a solid performance with eight kills, hitting .636.
“We went into the game wanting a big win before we play Hofstra this weekend,” said Stein. “And we also wanted to dominate the New England teams, just to show that we are not as big of underdogs as people assume us to be.”
Northeastern visits Hofstra this coming Saturday in Garden City, N.Y. at 1 p.m. on the Adelphi University campus. Northeastern is currently on a 16-match losing streak against Hofstra dating back to 1996 and is 1-22 against the pride since 1991. The Huskies are 0-7 against Hofstra in CAA play. Hofstra also knocked NU out of the CAA tournament last season.
