By Noah Nunez
General Reporter
The Women’s volleyball team faces a defeat against University of Bridgeport at home on Sept. 8.
The Owls started off the game taking the first set 25-15 and the second set 25-15 back-to-back, displaying an aggressive playstyle early on with 21 kills between the first two sets.
“I felt confident and good,” Head Coach Lisa Barbaro said. “The team’s been on a good roll and came together and stuff in Florida, so I felt good about it, but I know that Bridgeport’s a really good opponent.”
Outside hitter Kerrigan Habing, a junior, led the team with 18 kills across the whole game, with middle blocker Sarah Stark, a senior, getting 11 throughout the game and right side hitter Sydney Bennett, a graduate, generating eight.
“I think the momentum was just on their side, and we made critical errors at some key moments, but I think it’s a good learning moment for us,” Barbaro said.
They were unable to carry that momentum into the last three sets, as Bridgeport took the third 23-25, fourth 22-25 and fifth sets 13-15 in a reverse sweep against the home team.
Along with being the lead on kills in the game, Habing also led in errors with 10 throughout the match.
With outside hitter Marisabelle Sias, a freshman, staying behind with six errors and outside hitter Maria Martinez, a sophomore, having five throughout the game.
“We made a lot of unforced errors, missed a ton of serves, made a lot of attack errors. Our past serve game really broke down, then our setter-hitter connection started breaking down as well,” Barbaro said.
Bridgeport was able to take back the last two sets, outmatching the university in kills in the fourth set with 11 to the university’s 10.
Setter Kimi Mitchell, a sophomore, had a staggering 38 assists throughout the game.
Libero Sarah Henault, a senior, followed behind with six and setter Charly Williams, a junior, ended the game with two.
Barbaro still believed a loss like this one could be useful in strengthening the team for future games.
“I think there’s a lot to gain,” Barbaro said. “I think there’s lots to still continue to train and work on. It’s still early in the season; I think our team’s just gonna continue to grow. We do have a lot of options on our bench as well that we’re continuing to kind of develop and try out.”
Overall, while coming into this report, the reader knows of the defeat the university faced being there in the moment was a struggle.
The university’s playing throughout the match grew weaker the more it played out, as Bridgeport was always able to keep up by just a few points each set.
Each point made by Bridgeport became a scratch against the university’s lead, taking more and more out of them.
Having the game end with Bridgeport on top and a team that, while being kept together in the first half, fell apart when they needed to make it just over the final gap.
“But Bridgeport played a great match; hats off for them. They got a lot of strong veterans on their team that really carried them,” Barbaro said.
This loss brings the university’s record so far to 6-2 overall, with Bridgeport sitting at 2-2.
The Owls stayed home for their next game on Sept. 11 against Post University.
