Volleyball Advances to NEC Championship Match
The Central Connecticut volleyball team will play LIU in the NEC Championship match for the second consecutive season.
The Central Connecticut volleyball team earned a three set victory over Sacred Heart on Saturday night to advance to the Northeast Conference Championship match for the second consecutive season. The Blue Devils (21-8, 11-3 NEC) will play LIU Brooklyn at 3 p.m. tomorrow.
The Blue Devils won 25-20, 25-21 and 25-20 to sweep the match from the Pioneers (15-16).
CCSU hit .309 as a team led by sophomore Heather Trueman who hit .348 for the match with 10 kills on 23 total attacks. Freshman Brooke Schwab also boosted the team's hitting mark with a .583 hitting percentage with seven kills on 12 attacks.
The Blue Devils were also strong at the net defensively. As a team, the Blue Devils recorded 15.5 total blocks. Schwab contributed to nine block assists to lead the squad. Senior Veronika Ban (7), junior Rachel Dunlap (6) and sophomore Makenna Lommori (5) also put up a strong block for CCSU.
Freshman libero Rachel Fish led the CCSU reception defense with 10 digs. Junior Brittany Schumacher (6) and freshman Cassidy Stankowski (5) also contributed on defense.
Trueman led CCSU with 10 kills. Ban (8), Schwab (7) and Stankowski (5) also contributed multiple kills in a balanced CCSU attack.
CCSU connected for 32 kills as a team and committed just seven attack errors compared to 39 kills and 31 attack errors for the Pioneers.
Lommori recorded an assist on 28 of CCSU's 32 kills. She also had a pair of service aces.
CCSU fell behind 4-0 in the first set, but the Blue Devils rallied and controlled the action throughout the rest of the match.
Tomorrow's championship contest is a rematch of last season's NEC title match. CCSU fell to the Blackbirds in four sets in that contest. The match can be seen live on NECFrontRow.com.