NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The Catholic volleyball team wrapped up its first weekend of the season with a match against preseason second-ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater. The Cardinals captured the third set to keep the match alive, but ultimately dropped the match to the Warhawks 3-1.
The Warhawks convincingly took the opening set by hitting .333 while forcing the Cardinals to hit .-.148. UWW went on a 7-0 run to extend its lead to 19-5 and went on to take the opening set 19-5.
Catholic had its best hitting percentage in the second set with eight kills in 22 attempts, but it was the same story for UWW as it hit .429 to take a closely played second set 25-22. The Cardinals picked up three straight points to make the score 17-15 with kills from
Julia Turchiano and
Vivian O'Brien while
Julia Raab also recorded an ace. Catholic also scored four straight points to make the deficit 21-20 as Turchiano picked up another kill, but UWW took three of the last four volleys to pick up a narrow set win.
The third set was tightly played throughout but the Cardinals gained a late lead with three straight volleys and later got to a set point by taking five straight points with a kill from
Erin Faughnan and back-to-back aces from
Anna Maria Carella to make it 24-17. The Warhawks scored on four straight volleys but an attack error from Emily Lego gave Catholic the set win to force a fourth set.
Both defenses made things tough in the fourth set as neither team hit above .022. The Cardinals went on a 6-0 run with a kill by
Juliette Cummings to take a slim 12-10 lead. The team's traded back and forth until it was 19-19 but the Warhawks closed out the match on a 6-2 run to capture the victory.
Raab led the way with eight kills, followed by Faughnan and
Mariana Roman Cruz who each totaled six. Carella and
Kate Berra both had 14 assists to lead the way and Carella finished with four aces to lead the team.
Alejandra Garcia led the way in digs with 20 in one of her first career matches and Raab also had 10 in the match.
The Cardinals next match is on the road against Mary Washington on Wednesday, September 3 at 7 pm at Goolrick Hall.
