Volleyball Splits Matches Saturday at Jack Kaiser Classic

The Central Connecticut volleyball team split a pair of matches in Saturday's action at the Jack Kaiser Volleyball Classic. The Blue Devils opened the day with a 3-0 win over Manhattan before falling to Fordham, 3-1, in the finale.

CCSU is now 1-3 overall on the season.

MATCH 1: CCSU 3, Manhattan 0

Central opened the second day of action by winning, 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-20), to get its first win of the season.

CCSU's defense recorded 9.0 total blocks and limited the Jaspers attack to .093 hitting percentage.

Junior Madelyn Kaprelyan had a team-high 10 kills, while junior Gala Galabova added nine kills and six blocks. Sophomore Emma Henderson led CCSU with 12 digs, while junior Erin McDermott had 21 assists.

The Blue Devils took the opening set after breaking a 22-22 tie following a kill by Kaprelyan. Henderson followed with an ace and Kaprelyan got another kill to put Central in control to win the opening set.

Central led throughout the second set before closing the set out on a 4-1 run to go up 2-0 in the match. Sophomore Samantha McCreath had two kills in the run, including the set-winning point for CCSU.

The Blue Devils rallied from a 10-6 deficit in the third set before rallying to close out the match. A kill from senior Kaitlyn Kushman tied the match at 16-16 and a block by senior Raquel Quirarte and junior Morgan Woycik followed to put CCSU in front for good. The Blue Devils won with back-to-back blocks, first by Kaprelyan and Galabova and then by Kaprelyan and Quirarte to end the match.

MATCH 2: Fordham 3, CCSU 1

The Blue Devils won the opening set before falling to the Rams, 3-1 (21-25, 25-21, 25-18, 25-23) to close out play at the Jack Kaiser Classic on Saturday.

Kaprelyan and Galabova led Central with eight kills each. Galabova added a team-high seven blocks. Kushman had 15 digs, while Henderson added 12 digs, six kills and four blocks. McDermott had a team-high 16 assists.

The Blue Devils took the opening game, closing the frame on a 7-1 run. A kill by Quirarte and back-to-back Fordham errors gave CCSU a 21-20 lead. The Rams tied the match momentarily before Galabova and Henderson would team up for consecutive blocks to tip the frame in Central's favor. An ace by McDermott and another Fordham error gave CCSU a 1-0 lead in the match.

The Blue Devils held a lead late in the second game at 19-16 before the Rams would rally and eventually score the final four points to level the match.

Fordham would take the lead with a win in game three, setting up a back-and-forth game four. Neither team would lead by more than two points throughout the game. A kill by Kaprelyan would tie the score at 23-23, but after a Fordham timeout, the Rams would close the match with back-to-back points to finish the contest.

Kaprelyan was named to the All-Tournament Team following the weekend.

The Blue Devils are back in action with a match at Hartford on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m.