Volleyball beats FPU

By Avery Martin

Contributor

The Owls beat Franklin Pierce University 3-1 at home on Oct. 29 in a match that started slow but ended with excitement.

“It started off pretty rough, but we really picked it up in the last three sets. I’m really happy we were able to take home this conference win,” middle blocker Sarah Stark, a sophomore, said.

After losing the first set 25-14, the Owls knew they had to come together to bring up the intensity.

“We were just really upset about it to be honest. We shouldn’t have dropped the first set in the first place. But it’s always good to have that fire behind you. We wanted to win; we just got to start better,” outside hitter Raegen Emery, a graduate, said.

After the tough loss of the first set, the Owls focused on improving small errors to beat the Franklin Pierce defense.

“We really needed to reduce our own errors. There wasn’t much going on on the other side of the court. It was just our own errors,” Stark said.

The Owls came back in the second set, winning 25-17 after a briefly tied score of 16-16.

“I was really proud of our team today,” Head Coach Lisa Barbaro said. “We really had a slow start to the match. They really re-grouped and came together and fought to execute the game plan. I’m really proud of the effort.”

Franklin Pierce initially took the lead in the third set, but a kill by setter Katie Bardak, a freshman, brought the score closer, winning the set 25-19.

Barbaro says Bardak and outside hitters Isabel Alvarez and Julia Jaworowski, freshmen, were essential and showed their skills, as they lead the comeback against Franklin Pierce. Alvarez had a career-best game with 13 kills.

“We had a lot of freshmen today step up. This is a young group and a young team. I thought they finished really strong today,” Barbaro said.

The fourth and final set was close, with both teams trading the lead multiple times. Contributions from Alvarez, Emery and right hitter Sydney Bennett, a junior, brought the Owls the win of the set with a score of 25-19.

Emery and Alvarez led the team with 13 kills each, while Jaworowski had seven and Stark had six. Setters Madi Roar, a sophomore, led in assists with 26, and Lily Miller, a senior, had 15.

Defensively, blocks were led by Bennett with six and Emery and Stark with two each. Libero Jalie Miller, a freshman, had 14 digs, Emery had seven and Alvarez had five.

“It was a little bit of a slow start,” Emery said, “but we put a lot of our practice into our game today. We worked on the game plan and were able to enforce it.”

The Owls now hold a record of 4-17 overall and 2-4 in conference. They are back at home for senior day on Friday, Nov. 8 against American International College.