MADISON, N.J. — The Catholic volleyball team went on the road in conference play for the first time this season on Friday night, traveling up to New Jersey to take on Drew. With the match tied at one apiece, the Cardinals were able to come up with winning plays in the final two sets to walk away with a 3-1 win and get their record to 9-12 on the season.
Catholic started the match out hot, taking the first four points in the set to take control early off the back of back-to-back aces from
Gaby Hernandez-Ferraiuoli. With the score at 8-6, the Cardinals put themselves in great position to capture the opening set, going on an 11-4 run to get out to an 18-10 lead.
Julia Raab,
Laci Freitas and
Ava Borcky all picked up kills during the run. Drew fought back to make it 21-17 late in the set, but Catholic picked up four kills down the stretch to close out a 25-18 set win. Freitas tallied two more kills at the end of the set including the decisive one.
The Rangers put together their best offensive set in the second frame to pull back even at one in the match. Drew picked up 12 kills on 37 swings for a .162 hit percentage and wound up winning the set, 25-16. On the flip side, the Cardinals struggled offensively in the set with just five kills on 36 swings while committing seven attacking errors (-.056).
Needing to rebound in the third set, Catholic found itself holding on to a slim 16-14 lead before Borcky added a kill followed by a Raab ace to open up a four point advantage. The Rangers shrunk the deficit down to 21-19 before the Cardinals took a timeout to regroup and try to take the lead back in the match. The timeout paid off for Catholic as they took four of the final five volleys, a majority of which came off of Drew errors to win the third set, 25-20.
Freitas once again came up big for Catholic in the fourth and decisive set with five kills to help close out the win for the Cardinals. As a team, the Cardinals also put together their best set of the match offensively with 13 kills on 32 attempts with a match-high .219 hitting percentage to close out the win. Momentum in the set was seized when Catholic went on a 12-5 run during the middle of it to get out to a comfortable 19-11 lead. Once again, the Cardinals would take four of the last five volleys in the set to close out the match with a 25-18 set four win to get to 2-1 in conference play on the season.
For the first time in her career, Freitas finished with double-digit kills to lead the team with 10.
Grace Guerin and Raab finished behind her, both tallying eight kills.
Kate Berra finished with 17 assists to lead the team, followed by
Anna Maria Carella who had 14. Hernandez-Ferraiuoli totaled 19 digs with Raab behind her with a career-high of 16.
The Cardinals held the Rangers to just a .073 hitting percentage for the match. Guerin once again had an impressive block performance with six to lead all players in the match. Guerin now has 320 block assists in her career which is just 37 shy of the career program record, held by Elizabeth Schriener (1999-02).
Catholic is back in action tomorrow for a tri-match at Scranton, where they will take on the Royals and Springfield. The first match will take place at noon against Scranton.
