By Nathan Vaughan
For the first time in 16 years, the Northeastern volleyball team is the top seed in a conference tournament, and for the first time ever a Northeastern team is top dog in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) for the regular season.
Entering the weekend the Huskies had to play the teams tied for second place, Virginia Commonwealth and William ‘ Mary. Both games were played on Solomon Court.
“We were talking about this weekend,” said head coach Ken Nichols. “These are two of the three teams who were fighting to be regular season champs. So we talked about trying to send a message and demonstrating the level we can play at. Most importantly we talked about anything and everything that we can do as a team, how can we make adjustments, how can we push each other’s buttons without making anyone upset. Let’s get into the end here and let’s make an emphasis on how we can play together.”
Their first game was Friday against William ‘ Mary. The Huskies came out looking like the first place team they are, and the Tribe was unable to get anything going offensively, hitting a paltry .077. Senior outside hitter Brianna Seitz led the Huskies on defense and Northeastern steamrolled William ‘ Mary 25-14.
The second set was more of the same for Northeastern. It was led by sophomore middle hitter Jillian Robinson. Robinson had five kills on six attempts, a solo block and assisted on the only other block in the set. The Tribe’s offense was kept quiet again, only tallying seven kills to NU’s 14, with a low .029 hitting percentage compared to the .290 of the Huskies. Riding the strong defense the Huskies won again, 25-13.
The final set of the game was played much closer than the other two. William ‘ Mary had its best offensive set of the night but still couldn’t get to triple digits for its hitting percentage. Seitz shined on the offense with four kills and no errors to hit .500 for the set. The Tribe couldn’t keep up and lost 25-22.
On Friday VCU faced Hofstra and held on in a five set brawl to keep its playoff hopes alive. Since the Huskies had won Friday, they only needed to win one set over VCU to clinch home court for the playoffs. In order for VCU to win the conference it needed to sweep Northeastern and win by an aggregate of more than 14 points.
“We came out wanting to win this game,” said senior opposite hitter Sarah Stein. “We obviously wanted to take first in conference and host more importantly. We came out fighting VCU having to take one game from them. We just wanted to play even harder because it was Senior Day, so we wanted to play as well as we can. A lot of our parents won’t be able to come next weekend so we wanted to play well for them.”
Northeastern came out on a tear behind Seitz’s serving and took a 4-0 run. The two teams traded points with NU, slowly building a lead. The closest VCU got was at the 5-4 mark. After that, Northeastern steadily dismantled the Rams, pushing them to a 25-16 victory and the CAA regular season crown.
The next set was much closer as neither team was able to pull away from the other. Both teams were close in their hitting. Sophomore setter and opposite hitter Britney Brown led all hitters with five kills in the set. In the end, the Huskies triumphed over the Rams 25-23.
The third set was a bit of a let down for the Huskies; like the second set, it was a back and forth affair until 11-11. The Rams started to streak and ended up winning, 25-16.
Entering the fourth set, the Huskies regrouped and started to play VCU evenly again. The Huskies had only six total errors in comparison to the 12 for VCU. The Husky offense played a much better set and Brown got a kill to end the set and regular season, with a 25-19 win.
Earlier in the season when the Huskies were 2-7 and in the midst of a seven-game losing streak, Nichols made a bold prediction about how his team would end the season and said they would win 17 of their last 19 matches. The Huskies fell just short of these predictions, winning 16 of 19 to end the season including an 11-game wining streak.
Northeastern will have a week off before it resumes play in the CAA semifinals against the winner of the matchup between fourth-seeded William ‘ Mary and fifth-seeded Hofstra next Sunday night. That match between William ‘ Mary and Hofstra will take place Saturday night.
“That is why we are first place, because we are the best whole team,” said senior captain and outside hitter Lauren DeTurk. “We don’t need one player to play well, we definitely don’t need that. It hasn’t happened for us and I think we might be the only team that does that and that is what makes us such a good team.”
