Volleyball Rallies Past Bryant in Five Sets
The Blue Devils have won five straight matches.
The Central Connecticut volleyball team rallied from a two-set deficit to defeat Bryant, 3-2 (23-25, 20-25, 25-16, 25-19, 15-6), on Friday night in a matchup of teams atop the Northeast Conference standings. Central, which entered the game in second in the league standings, collected 13 blocks as a team and posted a .305 hitting percentage in the triumph. The Blue Devils won their fifth straight in the league to improve to 13-6 overall and 6-2 in conference play.
Freshman Emma Henderson led the Blue Devil attack with 16 kills, while junior Raquel Quirarte added 15. Sophomores Madelyn Kaprelyan and Morgan Woycik had 12 and 10 kills, respectively. Sophomore Erin McDermott directed the offense with 33 assists and junior Kaitlyn Kushman had 24.
Defensively, senior Lindsey Massicotte had 32 digs for CCSU and senior Maddie Smith had nine total blocks.
Bryant, which entered the match atop the league standings, slipped to 15-10 overall and 6-2 in the NEC.
The Bulldogs took a 2-0 lead in the match by winning the closely-contested opening sets. The Blue Devils scored four points at the beginning of the third set and would build a 16-7 lead following a spurt of seven unanswered points. CCSU would close the set out 25-16 to keep the match going.
In the fourth set, Central would again lead throughout. Back-to-back errors midway through the set forced a timeout by the Bulldogs as CCSU would go ahead 16-11. Bryant would close to within, 20-18, but McDermott would serve the final three points of the set as the Blue Devils would send the match to a fifth set.
In the decisive frame, consecutive kills by Henderson sprung CCSU to a 3-0 lead that it would not relinquish. Bryant would get within a point at 5-4, but Central would hold the lead the rest of the way. Freshman Ashlyn Eisenga served two straight points as the Blue Devils would build a 11-5 margin to force a timeout and after Bryant would momentarily regain the serve, Central scored the final four points of the match, including two kills by Henderson, to close out the comeback win.
The Blue Devils will be back in action on Friday, Oct. 27, when they travel to LIU Brooklyn for a 6:00 p.m. match.