Photo: Jocelyn Kline
Saturday, Oct. 13, Elizabethtown College’s women’s volleyball team hosted a tri-match against McDaniel College and Manhattanville College.
The Jays took on McDaniel first in a five-set match that lasted almost two and a half hours. The teams played a close game for the first half of the first match, but a series of attack errors against Etown put the Green Terror up 14-9. McDaniel used the gap to their advantage and extended their lead with two three-point runs, earning them the first win of the match 25-16.
Etown fought back after the loss, kicking off the second set with a 3-0 run. The Green Terror made things close again, tying the game at 11. The lead changed hands a number of times and a tie score at 23 made it anyone’s game. Two errors against McDaniel, however, put the Jays in a perfect position to take the set. A kill from senior Mackenzie Garner helped them do just that, giving them the win 25-23 and tying the match at one.
The third ran a similar course with an early Blue Jay lead, a McDaniel comeback and a one- or two-point game throughout most of the match. This time, however, with the score tied at 24, it was the Green Terror who sealed the deal with back-to-back kills by McDaniel sophomore Marlowe Embry and junior Isabel Paci for a 26-24 win.
The final two sets closely resembled the previous three, with both teams staying within four points of each other the whole time. The Jays took the fourth set, winning with back-to-back kills and tying the match at two.
The final set ended similarly with back-to-back kills from senior Sarah Schneider, resulting in a 17-15 win for the Jays, allowing them to take the match 3-2.
Garner led the Jays in kills with 18, followed by Schneider and junior Elle Shatto, who finished the match with 16 and nine, respectively. First-year Rileigh Hudock had a match-high 45 assists and sophomore Aiyana Tietze-Di Toro had a game-high 27 digs.
Schneider cited teamwork as a major factor contributing to the team’s success, especially in their close match against McDaniel.
“I really think that the biggest factor was that our team worked as an efficient unit,” she said. “With every volleyball game, there are going to be some rotations that we get stuck in and some disappointing points, but the ability for our team to pull together and overcome those setbacks was the key for our successful weekend.”
The Jays’ second match of the afternoon was against Manhattanville. Etown came out strong and their 18-6 lead provided them with enough of a buffer to hold on despite a 5-0 Manhattanville run in the middle of the set. A final kill by first-year Nicole Greiner helped the Jays to their first win of the match 25-14.
The Jays easily took the second and third sets 25-12 and 25-15, respectively. The second set included a 12-point run by the Jays with six kills from three different players. Garner led the Jays in kills again with a match-high 15 kills, followed again by Schneider (13) and Shatto (six). Garner, along with Shatto, were responsible for match-high aces (three). Hudock led the match with 34 assists and 14 digs.
“I hope that we can keep up the level of play that we displayed this weekend throughout the rest of the season,” Schneider said. “We have some tough matches coming up this week, but if we play like we did yesterday, we can potentially surprise a lot of people.”
She also said she wants “to have fun for the rest of the season” because this is her final season with the team.
The Jays’ next game is their Homecoming game, Oct. 18, at 7 p.m. against Stevenson University in Thompson Gym.
