Game Recap: Volleyball Splits Trimatch

The Mustangs volleyball team traveled to Harrisburg Area Community College on Saturday October 13, 2012 to compete in a trimatch with Harrisburg and Bucks County Community College.

In game one, the Mustangs faced off against the Centurions of Bucks and came away with three set win. Game scores were 25-5, 25-9 and 25-9.

The Mustangs overall hitting average across the match was a .333, as the Mustangs collected 28 kills and 38 aces. The team's ace average totaled in at a season high 52% or 12.67 aces per game. The ace leader was Alex Griffin with 16. She was followed by Nikki Reichert with seven and Liz Herezi with six. Reichert also dished out 23 assists for the matchup.

Defensively the Mustangs came up with just two digs because the team's offensive line up put away so many kills.  The service-reception pattern of the Mustangs passed a perfect game; no errors on 20 perfect passes.

Mustangs Head Coach Misti Volpe said of matchup, "Our girls did a great job of running our offense and setting the game pace."

In the second matchup of the day, the Harrisburg Hawks out did the Mustangs 3-2, with set scores of 26-24, 11-25, 25-19, 18-25 and 12-15. 

The Hawks kept the Mustangs offense at just a .133 hitting average. Freshman Liz Herezi led the Mustangs with 16 kills, Kendall Gazzo added 10 and Alex Griffin chipped in seven from the outside. The Mustangs managed to collect seven aces during the match, of which three were from Gazzo and two were from Griffin.

Defensively the team collected 41 digs. Gazzo led with nine digs, followed by sophomore libero Kelsey Kowalick with eight. Outsides Griffin and Herezi each added seven apiece.  As a whole the Mustangs dug at 76% efficiency.

The front line put up a mean defense with middles Gazzo and Chelsea Knowles each blocking two balls. Outsides Herezi and Griffin led in service-reception attempts with 17 perfect passes apiece.

"The girls fought hard, but we are still getting used to our new lineup during faster paced games," note Coach Volpe. "The Hawks did a good job of putting pressure on our defense, but I am sure our Mustangs are determined to rise to the occasion in the future and we hope to face off against them again."

The Mustangs look forward to being away at Luzerne County College next week, for a match on Tuesday October 16.