Matt Gad – Sports Writer
Southern volleyball defeated Pace University three sets to none Sept. 19 to improve to 9-2. As of Sept. 24, the team is currently 9-3.
“I think that right now we’re taking a good step forward,” senior Alexandria Jurgens said. “I think we do have some things to clean up … there’s definitely areas where we need to improve our game.”
This win marked the team’s fourth consecutive victory and was their first three set sweep since winning at Queens College, in Flushing, New York, September 12. Overall, this was the team’s seventh 3-0 sweep this season.
“Our philosophy this year is really just to stay focused one opponent at a time. This group’s jelling really well; they’re a really coachable group that follows our scouting reports and our preparation – this was one of the best team wins I’ve seen,” head coach Lisa Barbaro said.
The Pace Setters, who are aptly named, are 4-8 on the year and only 1-2 in the NE10. Since losing to Southern they have won games with Molloy College and The College of Saint Rose. For the Owls, Leanna Jadus dominated with 17 kills, 12 digs and 17 points. Alyssa Gage had nine kills and Gabriela Vazquez finished with 12 points and 13 digs.
“Being 9-2 is really nice but we just wanna keep going; we don’t want to fall off,” said Jurgens. “We just make sure that every game we are prepared with our scouting reports, with coming to practice and working hard and making sure that every game we’re prepared and ready to go.”
Jurgens received 17 total attempts on attack and recorded 26 assists. This season she has played in 12 matches and 41 sets and is recording 1.85 points per set, 1.46 kills per set and 3.24 assists per set. She is also holding a .167 hitting percentage.
Coming up the Owls have matches with the University of New Haven, Concordia College of New York, the New York Institute of Technology and Wilmington University – Delaware. The latter two games are part of a Saturday tilt, with the game with NYIT set for 11 a.m. and Wilmington scheduled for a 3 p.m. start.
Again, this was the seventh 3-0 sweep for Southern in 2017. In the match they played with Le Moyne College three days before this match-up with Pace they went to five sets before winning 3-2. At this point in the season that was the team’s only five-set match. The Owls’ only four-set win came against Nyack College Sept. 5.
“The goal is always to get out and win in three sets and not have the extra pressure to pull out the win but going up to Syracuse [for LeMoyne] and winning in five was a tremendous success. At home I believe we should have the advantage to put teams away but I just worry about us executing and doing what we need to do, whether we win in three or four or five. It doesn’t really matter as long as we’re making the adjustments that we need (to make).”
Photo Courtesy: Southernctowls.com
