Over the fall break weekend on Saturday Oct. 11, the Elizabethtown College women’s volleyball team took on Wilkes University and Montclair State University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in a tri-match. The Blue Jays had recently lost to Moravian University in a Landmark Conference matchup, placing the team 0-1 in conference play heading into their matchup against the Colonels. Wilkes hoped to reclaim a sense of victory, after dropping their last three matchups, including two in Landmark play, attempting to put themselves back into playoff contention. Montclair State hoped to take care of business as usual, heading into the tri-match on a seven game winning streak.
Wilkes started the scoring rallies off by taking the first three points of the contest and then rallied to put together a 10-2 run, giving them an eight point lead early on. Etown rallied back from the early deficit, with first-year defensive specialist Addy Reed putting together two straight aces, to pull the Wilkes lead to only three. After a kill and a few attack errors, Wilkes pulled the lead right back to their advantage, going up 17-9. Despite having a large disadvantage, Etown rallied under two aces by sophomore defensive specialist Emma Rizzutto and two kills by sophomore middle blocker Bailey McFeaters to reduce the deficit to only three again. The Blue Jays continued to rally, taking their first lead of the set when the score was 24-23, and with an ace by sophomore middle blocker Alexa Adamek, Etown was able to complete the comeback and win the first set 25-23.
Etown and Wilkes were neck and neck throughout the entire second set, with the largest advantage of the set only being a five point lead by the Blue Jays at the beginning through two more aces by Rizzutto. Wilkes crawled back, securing a one point lead after being down 24-21 on match point for Etown. Forcing extras, Wilkes got back to back kills and tied the game up at one set each with a score of 27-25.
The Blue Jays rallied through the next two sets, taking the third set 25-21 after rallies back and forth giving both teams a chance to have the lead throughout the set. Etown was up four when Wilkes attempted to rally back in the final part of the set, but the Blue Jays held on as Adamek’s kill and two aces by senior setter Angela Ouimet secured their second point.
Etown needed one set to win the match, and after gaining a comfortable lead, thanks to a few kills by McFeaters, the Blue Jays defeated the Colonels 3-1, after winning their final set 25-19. McFeaters led the team with 14 kills, followed by sophomore right side Ida Fisher with nine kills. Rizzutto finished the game with five service aces, followed by Ouimet with three and Adamek with two. Senior libero Lucy Stern led the team in digs with 19 in the game.
Etown had a little bit more trouble with Montclair State, as the Red Hawks fought to take the first set of the second match 25-21 through four straight points after being tied at 21. Etown took full advantage in the second game, cruising to a 25-11 set victory after scoring ten straight and leading 22-8 after Reed had four kills. First-year middle blocker Hope Young got the block on the attack error by Montclair State to secure the set victory.
The Red Hawks flipped the script in the third set, winning 25-11 after opening the set with a 9-3 lead. Montclair St finished the game, winning the fourth and final set 25-18 after Etown had held them within three for almost the entirety of the set until the last few points. In game two, Fisher, Reed, and senior outside hitter Kate Barbon had nine kills each for the Blue Jays. Rizzutto added two more service aces in this game and Reed led the team with 17 digs. Stern finished the tri-match achieving her 1,000th career dig for the Blue Jays, a milestone not many liberos achieve in their collegiate careers.
The Blue Jays will play their next home match on Halloween night against Catholic University on Oct. 31.
