This past weekend our team competed in the Red Dragon Classic in Cortland, NY. There were several teams at the tournament ranked in the Coach's Top 25 national poll so we were able to see some great competition early in the season.
In our fist live match we saw a team from New York City, Baruch College and had a nice victory to begin, winning with set scores of 25-16, 28-26, and 25-18. Sara Madison had a stellar opening to her college career, hitting close to .400 for a total of 14 kills. Lauren Hokaj and Brit Kelly led the way defensively with 19 and 12 digs respectively. Kelly Edinger did a great job setting as she finished with 36 assists.
Our second match would be against 20th ranked Juniata out of Pennsylvania. Juniata fields a nationally competitive volleyball program every year, and we quickly saw this year would be no different as we dropped the match with set scores of 25-17, 25-10, and 25-8. The women from Juniata used their tremendous height at the net to make it very difficult for our hitters.
On the second day of compeition we began against Lebanon Valley. Though each set was very tight, we dropped the match in three, with set scores of 20-25, 22-25, and 19-25. Paulina and KO led the way with six kills each, and Lauren O'Hara defensively with nine digs.
Our final match before our departure would be against the University of Rochester, a regional match that was very important for us to win. The match went to five sets, but we ended victorious with set scores of 22-25, 25-12, 17-25, 25-18, and 15-7. It was nice to come back from being down two sets to one. P and KO once again led the way offensively with 11 kills each. Brit had an outstanding match defensively with 20 digs and Brianne's serve was deadly as she finished with four aces.
After going 2-2 on the weekend, we travel on Friday to Nazareth where we'll see several more competitive teams. Wish us luck!