Sept. 17, 2010

Box Score

The River Hawk volleyball squad earned its third consecutive victory with a 3-1 win over Queens College on Friday night in the Costello Gym. Senior Sarah Coscia (Pittsfield, Mass.) paced the offense with 14 kills and a .423 attack percentage.

UMass Lowell won by scores of 25-22, 25-19, 23-25 and 25-20. With the victory, the River Hawks improve to 4-2 on the season while the Knights fall to 1-3 with the loss.

The River Hawks found their way through a bumpy first set with the guidance of Coscia's superb accuracy. In a preview of what was to come, the senior scored five kills in eight attempts and committed only one error.

With the score at 13-11 in the second set, the River Hawks put on a 9-2 run before Queens called a timeout at 22-13. Despite a small Knights' rally, UMass Lowell pulled away with the 25-19 victory to take the commanding 2-0 lead. Coscia and Jillian Hadder (Yucaipa, Calif.) added three kills each in what was largely a defensive minded set.

Queens College rebounded to steal a win in the third frame. Freshmen Carolyn Eddy (Dracut, Mass.) and Brooke Peterson (Del Mar, Calif.) were solid, picking up a combined 13 digs in the dropped set.

The River Hawks finally put them away in the fourth set with a mostly one-side 25-20 victory. Junior Lea Freeman (Methuen, Mass.) took over the offense with four kills and two blocks in the deciding frame.

For the match, Freeman shined with eight kills, six digs and five total blocks. In addition to Coscia's team-high 14 kills, Hadder tallied 12 of her own to pair with four digs.

The freshmen duo of Eddy and Peterson were the only River Hawks to earn double-digit digs, recording 20 and 12, respectively.

Quarterbacking the offense, sophomore Kristina Wiltjer (San Diego, Calif.) had 26 assists while freshman Olivia Parkins (Dracut, Mass.) added seven assists in relief duty.

With the victory in hand, UMass Lowell will now travel to Bentley's campus for a pair of non-conference games versus C.W. Post at 1 p.m. and Dowling at 3 p.m.