The volleyball team traveled down the Massachusetts Turnpike Saturday to Worcester to play in the Crusader Classic against Holy Cross and Boston College. The Huskies split the two games to move to 4-4 in the season.
In the opening set against the Crusaders, Northeastern struggled but won 25-21. NU was led by junior setter and opposite hitter Britney Brown, who had seven kills and five assists on her way to a double-double.
Freshman defensive specialist Lexi Ornell made her collegiate debut in the set going into serve.
‘The first time I was nervous, but that second time I was in I just knew I need to get my serves in, it was exciting,’ Ornell said.
After the first set, the Huskies held the Crusaders to only six hits and forced them to commit six errors to leave Holy Cross hitting .000 for the set. The Huskies meanwhile swung at .400 as NU rolled over Holy Cross 25-16 to take a 2-0 set lead.
Northeastern didn’t let Holy Cross back into the match, winning the third set 25-19 for a three-set sweep. Junior outside hitter Caitlin Tittl continued her dominance with five kills on seven swings for a .714 hitting average in the set. She finished with a match-high 12 kills.
‘I don’t think I necessarily changed anything,’ Tittl said. ‘I just tried to see the court better and worked hard in practice this week to try and get better.’
Northeastern then faced cross-town rival Boston College. The Eagles seemed to have a hard time in the set, struggling with only 10 kills and nine errors. In contrast, the Huskies hit at .300 clip. Tittl and senior co-captain setter and opposite hitter Jessica Tkachuk led with three kills each. The Huskies won 25-15.
The Eagles got their act together for the second set with 13 kills and only one error. The Huskies offense cooled down with only 11 kills and four errors. BC had four blocks to NU’s zero. Northeastern had another perfect set, and this time it was freshman middle hitter Nicole Bishop who went four for four, finishing with a career-high of 13 kills. The Eagles pulled away in the set, however, and went on to win 25-16.
‘I stayed after practice to work with the setters a lot,’ said Bishop. ‘The setters took me aside and helped me with timing and really working harder. I felt we did really good coming out strong but slowly lost fire. It was a team effort and we didn’t achieve.’
In the third set, Bishop went four for four again, helping the Huskies get 15 kills. NU won 26-24 taking a 2-1 lead in sets, needing only one more to take the tournament.
The fourth set belonged to the Eagles as NU head coach Ken Nichols was forced to use both of his timeouts early on in the set to halt BC’s momentum. The NU offense struggled getting only eight kills that were nullified by eight errors. BC hit .500 in the set and won 25-14.
The fifth and most decisive set was close but BC led the entire way and won 15-9 for the 3-2 final score.
‘These are two teams that we are supposed to beat,’ Nichols said. ‘Obviously BC is better and we are not right now. BC is better than last year and Holy Cross is a team that we absolutely must beat. If we can’t beat a Holy Cross then we are in trouble. The BC game, that might be my second loss in my career [to BC].’
The Huskies return to action this coming Wednesday in Storrs, Conn. , to face UConn at 7 p.m.