The Colgate volleyball team split the past weekend’s matches to maintain second place in the Patriot League. The Raiders lost a hard-fought match to Army 2-3, and then rallied back to a victory over Holy Cross 3-0.

Last Friday evening the volleyball team traveled to West Point to battle Army in a showdown of the top two teams in the league. The Raiders went into the game 6-1 in the Patriot League, their only conference loss to the 7-0 Black Knights earlier in the season.

The evening started off on the right foot for Colgate, as they stole the first game 25-22. The team fought back from a seven-point deficit near the middle of the game, tying the score at 21-21. Sophomore Kaylee Dougherty and first-year Kaleigh Durket ensured the win shoving down two attacks, each on the Army side of the floor.

Unfortunately, the second and third games did not prove as fortunate for the Raiders, as they lost 16-25 and 21-25, respectively.

Colgate bounced back in the fourth, however, taking off right at the beginning of the game. The Raiders and Black Knights went neck-in-neck for a while thereafter, each vying for control until Colgate managed to run away with the game and finish it, 25-18.

The fifth game was another intense tug-of-war on the scoreboard, with Army sealing the deal 15-12.

The Raiders boasted four players with double-digit attack statistics on the night, with junior Logan Keala leading the way with lucky number 13. Right behind her were sophomore Maureen Colligan with 12, Durket with 11 and Dougherty with 10. Keala also led the team defensively with a personal career-high 18 digs. The Patriot League top digger, junior libero Devon Applegate, was next with 17 digs throughout the evening, and Durket added 13. Pulling it all together was senior and captain Meghan Fanta with 31 assists, and sophomore Blaire Safir contributed 14.

While the team no doubt looks forward to the chance of exacting revenge against Army during tournament play, they also played another match last weekend, sweeping Holy Cross 25-23, 25-18 and 25-17 on Saturday afternoon.

Colgate was down two late in the first game but managed to pull through and take the win. The Raiders took the second game with ease as they maintained a lead from 14-13 and never looked back. The third set was more like the first, seeing them trail by just a few points but then capturing the finish.

Dougherty led the Raiders’ attack in this match with 10 kills on 15 attacks and no errors, while junior Casey Ritt followed closely behind with nine kills on the night. Applegate brought up 11 defensive digs, while senior Kelsea Loveless contributed 10.

Colgate played Binghamton last night and pulled off an amazing comeback effort, defeating the Bearcats 3-2 (21-25, 21-25, 25-16, 25-23, 15-11) after losing the first two sets. Durket led the Raider effort with 17 kills, and Keala pitched in a double double with 11 kills and 14 digs. Applegate led the defensive effort with 15 digs.

The volleyball team is now 7-2 in the Patriot League and 11-11 overall. They travel to Bucknell on Friday for their next league match-up.