Leicester, MA- The Women's Volleyball team headed into Saturday's tri-match with UMass-Dartmouth and Becker eager to earn a win as they lost a tough battle with Lesley on Thursday evening. The Lady Falcons earned a split in the action after bouncing back from a tough loss at the hands of the Corsairs to win in straight sets over the Becker Hawks to go 1-1 on the afternoon. The win improves the Falcons record to 2-6 overall, while the Corsairs improve to 3-6 while the Hawks fall to 5-6 on the season.
Game 1- Coming off the 3-0 defeat of the Becker Hawks in the 11am game, the Corsairs continued their hot play to start the first set against the Falcons. They hit an astounding .458, making just two errors to go on to take the first set 25-9. The Falcons got off to a better start in the second set as Cynthia Huerta (La Salinas, CA) served up an ace and a kill for two straight points to tie the set 4-4 early on. UMass responded though with a 10-2 run, led by a pair of kills from Corsairs Nicole Silverman. Two straight kills from Huerta and Katherine Rodriguez (Fajardo, PR) got the Falcons back to within five at 15-10, but that would be the closest they would get, dropping the second set 25-14. UMD finished off the match with a 25-10 third set win in which they finished with a match-best attack percentage of .529, making just one error in the set.
Huerta led the way offensively with 11 kills while Rodriguez and Lia Aime (Las Piedras, PR) both had seven digs a piece in the losing effort.
Game 2- The Falcons looked to bounce back right away as they took on the Becker Hawks, who had also fallen at the hands of the Corsairs earlier in the day. Rodriguez served up seven straight points with the help of Huerta who tallied four kills right off the bat to go up 7-0. The Hawks did not go quietly though as they battled back to tie the game up at 16-16, taking advantage of four Falcons errors during that stretch. It was a back and forth match the rest of the set, but Aime finished the set with a kill to go up 1-0 with a 25-23 win. The Falcons continued to play well in the second set as they went up as much as nine points at 14-5. Becker battled back again with a 8-3 run to get within four bringing the score to 17-13. Fisher tried to put the Hawks away going up 24-19, but Becker did not go quietly as they earned the next four points to make it a 24-23 game. Huerta earned her 4th kill of the set to clinch the second game to take a commanding 2-0 match lead. The final set was a different story as this time it was Becker who got out to a quick 10-3 lead forcing a Fisher timeout. The Falcons responded with their own 10-0 run to tie the set at 16 a piece, again with Rodriguez on the service line. Fisher then went up 23-19, but again Becker was not ready to quit, tying the game at 24-24. Two straight kills from Huerta and Charisse Lazu (Trujillo Alto, PR) closed it out for the Falcons as they hung on for the 26-24 set victory to take the match.
Huerta had a season high 23 kills in the match while adding 10 digs. Rodriguez had another strong game for the Falcons at the service line, tacking on another six service aces giving her 21 for the year, while contributing a team high 17 digs and 29 assists.
The Falcons will be back at it again on Monday when they head to Milton, MA to take on the Curry Colonels at 6pm. Live stats for the game can be found here.