The Northeastern volleyball team continued their preseason turnaround this weekend, taking two out of three matches at the Pittsburgh Invitational to raise their record to an even .500 mark.
Northeastern (6-6), which had dropped its first five matches against nationally ranked West Coast programs, has now come back to win six out of their last seven matches, including a hotly contested opening face-off with the Texas Christian University (TCU) Horned Frogs.
The Frogs (10-3) were not only riding a nine match winning streak, but had not let an opponent win two games in a match since their 3-2 season opening loss to Middle Tennessee State in late August. Northeastern quickly changed that, jumping out to a 2-0 lead before dropping the third.
The fourth game went all the way to 38-36 before the Huskies could close it out to take home the victory. Coach Ken Nichols immediately credited the intense early season competition in securing the win.
“It really speaks to our depth and our training,” he said. “TCU really had only one lineup in the first game and a half. Then they flipped their lineup around and put in some smaller, more ball control players. We were able to counteract their changes. TCU served three or four game points in the fourth game and we fought them all off. It speaks of that experience we picked up on the West Coast. We had the preparation to win a match against a team who, on paper, we should have lost to.”
Four different TCU players picked up double-doubles, but with the Husky defense picking up 21 assisted blocks and 78 digs, and freshman outside hitter Whitney Turner leading the offense way with 14 kills, Northeastern prevailed.
“Whitney did some good things up front right away,” Nichols said. “It was a bit of a coming out party for her. When things go good, they go really good. She matched up well.”
The host, University of Pittsburgh, is led by 6-3 all-conference and tournament MVP senior outside hitter Wendy Hatlestad. The Panthers swept through the Huskies 3-0. In fact, they swept through TCU and the University of Toledo Rockets 3-0 as well.
“Pitt was somewhat like some of these West Coast teams, where they have two or three superstars and a lot of other kids who do a super job,” Nichols said. “It’s really hard to stop three superstars.”
The Panthers hit .321 on the day, compared to the Huskies’ .152, and had three of their hitters combined for 50 out of the team’s 54 total kills. Senior setter Kristin Ursillo tallied 37 assists in the three game match, and junior Jana Kubalova had a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs. Although they were defeated, the Huskies actually improved as the match went along. The Panthers performance, however, deteriorated. Husky hitting percentages went from .073 in game one to .171 in the second, and then .209 in the third. Pittsburgh started at a red hot .414, slipped a bit to .394, and then toppled to .220. Nichols attributes this to being able to make adjustments to a team who refused to share videotapes of previous matches beforehand.
“The nice thing about this was that frankly, we had figured them out,” he said. “The 30-24 second game was closer then it seemed. That match should have gone at least four games though.”
In fact, an apparent no-call prevented the Huskies from fully challenging the Panthers. In game three, up 30-29 and needing one more point to win, junior Rebecca Holland served the ball that when returned, caused a Pittsburgh player to fall into the net. Typically a violation, the play is usually whistled dead and the point awarded to the serving team. However, neither referee made the call, and the Panthers, who had nearly stopped the play themselves expecting the whistle, ended up taking that point, as well as the next two to win the game and the match.
An hour later, without the help of injured 6’2″ junior hitter Britta Stroman and 6’1″ junior hitter Shannon Brooker, the Huskies were back on the court to face the University of Toledo Rockets, and ended up sweeping through 3-0. Once again, Nichols praised his team’s depth, and then the overall performance.
“Even with Britta and Shannon on the bench, we’re still too deep for these teams,” he said. “We’re able to rotate through. It’s fun to win tournaments that way. Jana had an incredible match; 10 kills on 15 swings, that’s exceptional.”
“They’re better conditioned than they have been in years past,” Nichols added. “I’d like to see Shannon get back healthy, which would mean we have a backup for every position again. The schedule is set up in a certain way for a certain reason. This is a good time for us to start to peak, cause we’re banging heads with more of the regional competition. They’re all good ways to measure ourselves against the rest of the conference, and the rest of the region.”
On Friday and Saturday, the Huskies will compete at the Harvard Invitational.
