WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Catholic volleyball team returned to
Franny Murray Court for the first time in the 2025 season to take on Eastern and FDU-Florham in a tri-match on Saturday afternoon.
MATCH ONE - Eastern 3, Catholic 0 (25-20, 27-25, 25-16)
Early in the first set, the Cardinals were trailing 10-7 but used a 4-1 run with kills by
Erin Faughnan and
Julia Raab to even up the match at one. Catholic took its first lead of the set after
Julia Tuchiano delivered a kill and an attacking error Eastern made the score 19-18 Cardinals. The Eagles bounced back however and finished the set on a 7-1 run to take the opening frame 25-20. Both team's defenses were strong in the set as neither side hit higher than .100.
After a 6-0 run put Eastern ahead 22-17, Catholic showed resiliency when
Laci Freitas, Turchiano, Raab and Faughnan picked up kills down the stretch to help the Cardinals pull back even at 25. The Eagles were able to bounce back once again and a block from Josie Arezina gave another set win to Eastern to take a 2-0 lead, 27-25.
Eastern put together its highest output offensively in the match in the third set, hitting .297 to complete the sweep with a 25-16 set three victory. The lead was extended to 21-13, allowing the Eagles to pull away and knock off the Cardinals in the first match.
Raab and Freitas came up with the most kills for the Cardinals in the match with nine each and
Mariana Roman Cruz also added eight.
Anna Maria Carella and
Kate Berra provided 14 and 12 assists respectively.
Alejandra Garcia finished the match with a team-high 18 digs while
Tanya Sichling and Carella each finished with nine.
MATCH TWO - Catholic 3, FDU-Florham 1 (20-25, 25-13, 25-22, 25-22)
After dropping the opening set of the second match of the day, the Cardinals bounced back extremely well with a convincing 25-13 second set win to even things up. Catholic held FDU-Florham to a -.100 hitting percentage while hitting .290 on its own end. The set was blown open when the Cardinals went on a 10-1 run where Faughnan and Raab notched kills and Carella supplied an ace to storm ahead 19-10.
Vivian O'Brien delivered the decisive kill in the set on an assist from Carella to win by 12.
The third set was back-and-fourth throughout and Catholic seized momentum with a 4-1 run in the late stages to take an 18-15 lead after an ace from
Juliette Cummings. O'Brien, Raab and Faughnan all delivered kills in the late stages to close out a win 25-22 to take a 2-1 lead after the third frame. Catholic had its best hitting percentage in the match at .295 in the set.
The Devils came out strong in the fourth set getting out to a 7-3 lead but the Cardinals chipped away at the deficit and used a 6-1 run capped off by back-to-back kills from Roman Cruz to storm ahead 14-11. With the set knotted up at 20, Cummings came up with a kill and Catholic drew up plays for Faughnan on each of the last two volleys and she added two more kills to her total to close out a 3-1 win for Catholic. The Cardinals are now 2-4 on the season after a 1-1 day.
Raab came up just one kill shy of matching a career-high with 16 kills in the win to lead the team. Faughnan recorded double-digit kills for the first time on the season with 13. Both setters finished with 20+ assists in the match as Berra had 23 and Carella totaled 20.
Garcia was once again the digs leader with 18. Carella and Raab both finished the match with double-doubles as Carella tallied 17 digs and Raab had 13.
The Cardinals next match will be a tri-match at Rowan on Saturday, September 13 when they take on the Profs as well as Lebanon Valley. The first match is set to start at 11 am.
