WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Catholic volleyball team returned home to Franny Murray Court on Friday evening for its first Landmark Conference match of the season against Lycoming. After jumping out to a 2-0 lead on the Warriors, the Cardinals weathered the storm in the third and fourth set and came away with a 3-2 victory to open up conference play 1-0 and move to 8-10 on the season.
The Cardinals came out of the gates strong in the opening set and coasted to a 25-13 victory to kick the match off. It was the team's most effective set on the offensive end, coming up with 13 kills on 29 swings for a .241 hitting percentage.
Julia Raab paced Catholic in kills in the set with four, followed by
Ava Borcky and
Grace Guerin who both came away with three kills in the set. The Cardinals were also locked in on the defensive end, holding the Warriors to a -.083 hitting percentage, which was their lowest in any set during the match.
In the second set, Catholic seized momentum with the score at 12-11 by going on a 6-1 run where Raab was once again the leader offensively with two kills. A 5-1 Lycoming run pulled the Warriors within two at 19-17 after two Catholic attacking errors. The Cardinals stayed poised in the final several volleys and went to
Vivian O'Brien who came through with two kills, including the set clinching one to close out a 25-22 set to win to give Catholic and commanding 2-0 lead.
Fortunes swung back in favor of Lycoming in the third and fourth set with the Warriors taking both to force a decisive fifth set. The Warriors put together their best offensive set in the fourth, picking up 14 kills on 41 swings for a .293 hit percentage. Lycoming captured both sets by the same score of 25-19 to face a winner take all fifth set.
The margins were slim for both sides in the final set with Catholic taking a slight 8-7 before switching sides after an
Erin Faughnan kill. Catholic opened up a cushion for itself after back-to-back attacking errors from Camryn Quelet put the Cardinals up 12-9. Guerin came up with a big kill a few volleys later to set up a match point for Catholic. With the contest in the balance at 14-13, the Cardinals went back to their most effective offensive player in the match in Raab who placed a great swing past two Warrior players to close out the match with a 15-13 set five win. Catholic remained locked in defensively throughout the fifth set as Lycoming finished with just a .033.
Gaby Hernandez-Ferraiuoli finished with a career-high in digs with 35 in the match to lead all players. It was the fourth time in her career she had finished with 30 or more digs and passed her previous career-high by one which she set against Widener in 2022. It brings her career total to 1,305 which makes her the 12th player in program history to reach 1,300 digs in their career. She is now just 18 digs short of moving into 11th all-time in program history.
Raab finished the match with 17 kills which is a career-high and the most totaled by a freshman at Catholic since Halie Murphy in 2022. Another freshman, Borcky, finished behind her with 11 kills which is the third time she's reached double-digit kills this season.
Kate Berra and
Anna Maria Carella both finished with career-highs in assists with 28 and 23 respectively. Berra also added 14 digs to complete her ninth double-double of the season.
As a team, the Cardinals finished with 57 assists in the match which is tied for the 10th highest assist total in a match in program history.
The Cardinals are back in action tomorrow, hosting a tri-match with the top-ranked team in the country, Juniata, and Mary Washington. The Cardinals open up the day taking on the Eagles of Juniata at 12 pm.
