ANNVILLE, PA. — The Cardinals traveled to Lebanon Valley for a tri-match on Wednesday afternoon, in which they split the two matches to move to 6-6 on the season.
MATCH ONE - Catholic 3, Rochester 2 (22-25, 25-23, 27-25, 22-25, 15-5)
In a highly competitive five set match to open up the day, the Cardinals rebounded after dropping a tight first set and took three of the last four sets to extend their win streak to four.
The Cardinals tallied up their most kills in the match in the second set with 14 while hitting .238 in the set. After falling behind 7-6, Catholic rattled off five straight points with kills from
Anna Maria Carella and
Vivian O'Brien with
Grace Guerin adding in two aces. Rochester pulled back even at 16, but the Cardinals once again went on a 4-0 run with a kill from Guerin and an ace from Carella. Up 24-23, an attack error from the Yellow Jackets sealed the set for the Cardinals to pull back even.
The third set was also a battle throughout, starting off with multiple aces from
Gaby Hernandez-Ferraiuoli. The match was all tied up at 20, and Catholic seized control scoring on three volleys in a row, spurred by an O'Brien kill. The Yellow Jackets fought back to make the set all square at 25, but in the key moments O'Brien came up with another kill to close out the set and take a 2-1 lead.
After dropping a tightly played fourth set, the Cardinals dominated in the final set and came away with a 15-5 match clinching win. The Cards took 12 of the first 14 points in the set to help them cruise to the victory. The Cardinals only made two attacking errors in the set and wound up hitting .467.
Guerin and
Julia Raab both led the way offensively for the Cardinals with 13 kills apiece followed by O'Brien with 8. Carella and
Kate Berra both were great in the assist department totaling 23 and 19 respectively. Hernandez-Ferraiuoli led the way in digs with 23 and
Erin Faughnan added five blocks to help the defensive efforts.
MATCH TWO - Lebanon Valley 3, Catholic 2 (25-5, 21-25, 25-17, 29-27)
The Flying Dutchman got out to an unbelievable start in the opening set, winning 25-5 to get ahead 1-0. Lebanon Valley did not commit a single attacking error and ended up hitting .652 in the set.
The Cardinals got back into the match in the second set, finishing off a 25-21 victory.
Mariana Roman Cruz led the way offensively for the Cards with five kills to help propel them to a set two win. Roman Cruz picked up the final two kills in the set to close out the win.
After dropping the third set 25-17, Catholic was in a battle in set four that ultimately ended 29-27 in favor of the Flying Dutchman to take the victory. Catholic got out to multiple leads, 25-24 and 26-25 but Lebanon Valley stayed poised and came up with the plays necessary to keep the set going and come out with the win. On the first match point for the Flying Dutchmen, they went to Mattea Penner who came away with the match clinching kill.
Roman Cruz finished with a career-high nine kills to lead the offense for Catholic. Guerin picked up five more blocks in the match and Carella was the digs leader with 10.
The Cardinals next match takes place on the road against Gettysburg in a non-conference matchup. The match takes place Wednesday, September 25 and will start at 7 pm.
