Today: Feb 17, 2025

Volleyball falls to Pace

By Avery Martin

Contributor


photo | lily Rand
Outside hitter Raegen Emery, a graduate, avoids the double block.

The volleyball team lost 3-1 in a close conference match vs Pace University on Oct. 22 at home. 

“I thought Pace played a really good game,” Head Coach Lisa Barbaro said. “I feel with us, we didn’t really out-execute them. They defended really well and our defense and our pass-serve game wasn’t there tonight.” 

The first set was won by Pace 17-25 before the Owls picked it up to take the second set 26-24. The third (18-25) and fourth (20-25) sets fell to Pace to hand them the match victory.  

“I think we went out there and played really hard,” middle blocker Sarah Stark, a sophomore, said. “We were prepared, but we didn’t execute the game plan fully.” 

Outside hitter Raegen Emery, a graduate, led the team with 10 kills. Stark had nine of her own, and right-side hitter Sydney Bennett, a junior, had seven. 

“I thought my middles played well. That was one of the things we did have in the game plan, to get our middles the ball. When they did get the opportunity to do so, they really capitalized, so I thought that was the positive of our match,” Barbaro said. 

Setter Madi Roar, a sophomore, had 19 assists, followed by setter Lilly Miller, a senior, with 10. Libero Jalie Miller, a freshman, led in digs with 16, followed by outside hitter Victoria Pascual, a sophomore, with 10 and Stark with seven. 

“We just need to keep fighting. We worked really hard, but we need to clean up a few errors that we were making,” Stark said. 

Barbaro said there is a lot to learn from the loss, and that skills repeated in practice must be implemented more frequently in the game. 

“I think there’s a lot to learn with us. I just think we have to continue to work on our defensive game and our pass-serve game. We just made a lot of unforced errors and didn’t really execute,” Barbaro said. 

Overall, it was Pace’s long scoring runs that propelled them to victory. In the fourth set, the Owls found themselves battling with Pace before the latter took an 8-2 run to win the set and therefore the match. 

“I think we just got to work harder, earn more points and stop making errors,” Emery said. “We just need to put a lot of the things we are working on in practice together. We need to focus on ourselves and ask more of each other and of ourselves.” 

The loss brings the Owls to a record of 3-17 overall and 1-4 in conference. They now sit at 11th in the conference. 

Pace now holds a record of 8-7 overall and 2-2 in conference. They sit fifth out of 12 in the NE10 Conference. 

The Owls are back at home in Pelz Gymnasium on Oct. 29 against Franklin Pierce University. They return to the road on Nov. 1 against Southern New Hampshire University. 

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