Volleyball Struggles But Finally Clinches a Win

Women’s volleyball hosted Montreal, Siena and Princeton this weekend for the Colgate Invitational tournament. The team finished the weekend with a 1-2 re-cord overall, ending with a commanding 3-0 sweep over Siena.

In Saturday’s first game, Colgate faced off against Montreal after a loss to Princ-eton the night before. The Raiders gave up the first two points of the opening set but pushed through for a 6-1 run to take a 6-3 lead over the Carabins.

Montreal was not quick to let up and fought back to knot the set at nine, even-tually taking the lead. From then on, the Raiders were unable to regain control. Montreal ended the set on a 16-10 run that set the score at 25-19.

The second set was more evenly bal-anced with each team trading posses-sion of the ball. The score alternated 19 points into the second set until Montreal scored consecutive points to take an 11-9 lead over Colgate. The Raiders trailed the Carabins but kept the score close until at 20-17 they took off. Colgate bursted ahead in a 7-4 run to tie the set at 24 all.

The nail-biter ended in a rare 28-26 score with Montreal coming out victori-ous. Colgate was unable to move past the defeat, and although the team won a few key rallies, they lost by an 11-point mar-gin in the third set, 25-14.

After falling in the afternoon to Mon-treal, the Raider women stepped onto the court ready for a comeback against Si-ena. The first saw a competitive back-and-forth between the two teams with neither taking definite control over play.

The Raiders held the lead for most of the first set, but the Saints took a 5-0 point streak half way through the set. Colgate was able to respond, taking back another five points to tie the score at 16 all. The Raiders dominated the sec-ond half of the set and ended it with a 25-21 score.

Set number two was marked by both strong Colgate offense and defense, with sophomore middle Diane Seely leading the pack with seven kills of her own and junior libero Caitlin Cremin recording seven digs. Colgate finished off the sec-ond set with a 14-6 run, maintaining the match lead and putting all the pressure on Siena to win the third set to stay alive.

The Raiders came out strong with a 3-0 advantage in the beginning of the third set, controlling the pace of play and setting the tone for the set.

Siena pushed through, taking a 4-0 run of their own to tie the game at four each, but the Raiders stopped them in their tracks. From that point on, the Saints would not come within five points of the Raiders as they sailed off to victory and a 25-16 finish for their first season win.

The team will be back in action this weekend when they arrive in New York City to participate in the Columbia invi-tational. They will face off against the host team on Friday at 7 p.m. before they play Hofstra and Rhode Island at 1:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., respectively, on Saturday.

Contact Emma Barge at [email protected].