Sept. 30, 2011

Box Score

River Hawk volleyball was turned away in four sets by visiting New York Institute of Technology on Friday night in the Costello Gym, snapping a three-game winning streak.

Suffering its first home loss of the year, UMass Lowell drops to 7-4 on the season The Bears improve to 6-5 to move their record over .500 for the first time this year. The match scores were 18-25, 20-25, 25-19 and 21-25.

"We played some nice defense, NYIT has some good hitters," said head coach Karen McNulty. "We need to be a little more aggressive, but we also were playing four freshmen out there at times. Hopefully tomorrow we'll put on a little better performance."

The River Hawk offense held a respectable .281 hitting percentage in the opening set, but were outpaced by a lethally efficient NYIT that hit .484 and committed just one error. Senior Lea Freeman (Methuen, Mass.) carried the offense with four kills and had help from rookie Anisa Smith (Moraga, Calif.) who added three, but it proved too little in the 18-25 loss.

The second set offered much of the same as the Bears eclipsed a .400 hitting percentage again to take a two game lead, 20-25. Freeman totaled four more kills and sophomore Brooke Peterson (Del Mar, Calif.) scored three of her own, but the rest of the club tallied just four combined. The match marked the first time the River Hawks lost the opening two sets since Sept. 3 at Bridgeport--the second match of the season.

Backed into a corner, UMass Lowell sprung to life in the third for a 25-19 victory. Smith slammed home five kills, while Freeman picked up three more to round out the offense. Defensively, Ella Merrill (Bermuda Dunes, Calif.) and Trina Carroll (Hampton, N.H.) combined on a pair of blocks that helped keep the momentum in the River Hawks corner over the course of the set.

Despite a strong effort in the fourth set, NYIT was able to pull away as it scored four of the final five points. Freshman Hannah Rey (San Diego, Calif.) took the match by storm, scoring eight kills to send the fans into a frenzy. She was set-up by junior Kristina Wiltjer (Temecula, Calif.) who dished out 13 assists in the frame.

For the night, Rey led UMass Lowell with a career-high 14 kills and 15 digs--marking her third double-double of the season. Freeman added 12 kills for her 11th consecutive match with double-digit kills and Carroll scored five kills and four total blocks.

Wiltjer piloted the offense to 40 assists, while picking up nine digs. Libero Carolyn Eddy (Dracut, Mass.) also dug nine balls to aid the passing game.

The River Hawks have little time to dwell on the loss as they return to the gym tomorrow at 1 p.m. to host Saint Anselm in a Northeast-10 showdown.