This past weekend the women’s Volleyball team continued the opening part of their season at the Maryland Invitational hosted by the University of Maryland in College Park, MD. The Raiders played three games, first against the hosts, then Liberty (VA) on Saturday and finished the tournament against SEC Power South Carolina on Sunday.

In the opener against the hosts, the Raiders went down early, finding themselves in a 5-11 ditch. The team, however, rallied behind the play of sophomore Allie Lowe and junior Alex Stein to tie the game at 19 and then again at 22. Maryland’s strong front line wa able to capitalize on a series of Colgate errors in the final points of the set to take a 1-0 lead with a 25-22 win.

In the second set, Maryland once again got out to a hot start, taking an early 21-10 lead. This time, however, the Raiders were unable to extend the set with a comeback, and the Terrapins were able to win the set 25-13 to take the 2-0 lead, a game away from the sweep.

The final set opened with a back and forth battle with the team neck and neck for the first dozen points. A 3-point Maryland burst midway through though made it 15-8 and the Raiders struggled to recover eventually falling 25-17 as the Terrapins completed the opening game sweep.

In the second game against Liberty University, things looked bleak for the Raiders who, after a hotly contested loss in the first set, fell 25-16 in the second. In the third set, the game started to turn around. After going back and forth for most of the set, the game tied at 21, Colgate rallied off three straight points spearheaded by a kill from first-year Ellen Hamlin and a service ace from senior Katie Stansbury to give the Raiders a 24-21 lead. Liberty was able to battle back and get two points but another Hamlin kill gave the Raiders the victory and kept them alive.

The fourth set was a continuation of improved play for Colgate. Once again, the teams split points through the middle of the set until Colgate was able to win 8 of the final 11 and take a 25-19 victory to force a fifth set. Once again, the teams couldn’t be separated with the score evening out 13 times throughout the final set. With the score tied at 18, an attack error by Liberty’s Victoria Baptista gave the Raiders a one-point lead. Another error, this time by Jenna Culhan, gave the Raiders a 20-18 final set victory and the match.

In the final game of the weekend, the team took on SEC power South Carolina. The team played their hearts out early against the heavily favored Gamecocks and despite trailing most of the first set, were able to grind back and tie the score at 25 to send the game into a tiebreaker. Unfortunately, South Carolina was able to find gaps in the Raider defense and won the first set 27-25. In the second set, the Raiders once again battled, having the score tied at 18 late in the set. Once again, however, the Gamecocks were able to run away with it, taking a 25-20 win to stretch their lead to 2-0. In the final set of the match, South Carolina’s advantage became clear and the team from Columbia raced out to an early lead and never looked back en route to a 25-12 win and a 3-0 sweep.

The Raiders currently stand at 3-6 and will next play the weekend of September 15/16 in the Stony Brook Tournament in Stony Brook, NY. They will next be at home September 28 when they take on Lafayette in a conference game at 7 p.m.

Contact Gideon Hamot at [email protected].