By Ari Strait
The Northeastern volleyball team closed out their preseason schedule this weekend with 3-1 defeats of both St. Peter’s College and Rutgers University on their respective home courts.
The Huskies (12-6) actually dropped the first game of the Saturday match to the St. Peter’s Peahens, but took the next three to bring home the win. Senior outside hitter Briana Furch, one of five players to finish with double digit kill totals, led the team with 16 kills on the day, and ending up with an astounding .583 hitting percentage. Senior setter Kristin Ursillo tallied 57 assists in the match, and the team finished hitting at a red hot .367 mark, significantly higher than the Peahens’ .233.
St. Peter’s, whose roster is made up of only seven players, dropped their 13th match in a row, falling to 1-19 on the season. The Peahens, members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, beat the Huskies in 2001, but were defeated in last year’s preseason matchup, 3-0.
The following day against the Rutgers University Scarlet Knights, (7-10, 1-2), also provided a well-balanced offensive attack, as once again five different Huskies totaled 10 or more kills. This time, juniors Jana Kubalova and Rebecca Holland tied for the team lead, with 14 kills each, and Ursillo served up 55 more assists alongside five kills of her own.
The Scarlet Knights, currently ranked ninth in the Big East, swept through the Huskies 3-0 last year, but even with senior outside hitter Shayla Bush’s 25 kills, simply could not replicate that result this time around.
The Huskies, now the winners of seven matches in a row, began their America East competition Tuesday, Oct. 7, with an away match at the University of Albany. Northeastern handed Albany matching 3-1 defeats in the teams’ two meetings last year, and will look to open their season with another victory against last year’s fourth-ranked team in the conference.
Once again the Huskies established themselves as a much more accurate offensive team, finishing with 11 less attack errors than St. Peter’s, and 15 less than Rutgers. That, combined with the fact that the team also out-blocked both of their opponents at the net, creates a dangerous combination.
