Volleyball rolls through first conference tests with three wins

By Ari Strait

News Staff

The Northeastern Huskies tore through their initial conference opponents last week, providing solid evidence that the desired results from a significantly challenging preseason schedule might be paying off after all.

In-conference competition began with a match at the University of Albany, where the Huskies swept through the three game match 30-22, 33-31, and 30-23. Junior hitters Rebecca Holland and Jana Kubalova each reached double digits in kill totals, with 11 and 10 respectively, just under half the team’s total for the night.

The Great Danes, who were also opening up the America East season schedule, were led by matching 14 kill performances from freshmen Ashley DeNeal and Shelby Goldman, but simply couldn’t keep their five match winning streak going.

Northeastern (15-6, 3-0), now winners of 10 consecutive matches, continued to represent the model of offensive accuracy, making half as many attack errors and service errors as Albany (16-6, 1-2) did.

According to coach Ken Nichols, a true sense of excitement came over the team when they defeated a conference opponent, as these games are approached with a very different mindset than out-of-conference matches.

“We talk about getting to the national tournament, and the way to get there is by winning our conference, 64 teams go, and 32 of them are automatic bids, because they won their conference,” Nichols said.

The second America East test facing the Huskies came at home, with a Friday night match against the University of Maine Black Bears. Northeastern took a close game one, 30-28, but then walked through the following two, 30-23 and 30-14, for another three game sweep.

Kubalova, typically one of the Huskies’ go-to attackers, injured herself after an attack attempt, and finished with only three attempts and no kills on the day. However, the much-heralded Northeastern depth then stepped up. Freshman hitter Whitney Turner came off the bench and tallied a match high 14 kills and a .417 hitting percentage in Kubalova’s absence.

This match also featured a strong defensive showing by the Huskies, as not a single Black Bears player managed to break double digits in kill totals. Four separate Huskies finished with 10 or more digs and senior Briana Furch had three solo blocks at the net.

Nichols had praise for both the individual and team efforts for this victory.

“It’s nice to see Turner come in and be virtually unstoppable at the net,” he said. “She’s going to be an extremely special player in the history of Northeastern volleyball. Briana is by far having the best season of her career. A big part of this win was how much we’ve learned. The system is ingrained in their minds. They are so practiced at looking for weaknesses.”

Maine (9-14, 0-3), who began their season with a 3-0 loss at the hands of the University of New Hampshire Wildcats, fell to 0-3 in conference play after losing to the Huskies and then Albany following that.

Northeastern played its most competitive match against the Wildcats (11-10, 2-1) from the University of New Hampshire on Sunday. Northeastern dropped the first game 34-32, their first loss in eight games, but then fought out a 3-2 victory.

The Huskies won the second and third games rather convincingly, 30-18 and 30-23, but dropped another close one in the fourth, 31-29. The team then turned it up and won the fifth and deciding game, 15-13.

Nichols credited several things as being instrumental to the positive outcome.

“We’re back to the things we’ve been saying all year long; our depth, and our fans, which we so greatly appreciate,” he said. “It makes a huge difference. We also started to figure out a lot of their weaknesses. There were some things you can’t see on tape, some intangibles. I’m so pleased and greatly impressed with this team.”

Junior hitter Karrin Moore put together a solid, well-rounded game with 23 kills and 20 digs, and sophomore Larissa Adomat added 20 kills of her own. Senior setter Kristin Ursillo, winner of the last two America East Setter of the Week awards, had 61 assists in the five games, as the Huskies knocked off last year’s America East regular season champion.

The University of Binghamton and University of Maryland-Baltimore County, each of whom are currently sporting 2-1 records in the America East, are on the Huskies’ schedule for next week, as the team will try to replicate the in-conference successes they have achieved thus far.