WSOU

Seton Hall volleyball splits doubleheader on Saturday in Akron

Date: September 14, 2019

By: Madi Travisano

The Pirates continued their weekend in Ohio at the Akron Invitational with two matches this Saturday. They started out strong this morning as they swept St. Francis University 3-0 in straight sets getting their first road win of the season. But the team lost to Akron 3-0 in the evening game. 

 

As Seton Hall played the first match of the day at the invitational, Saint Francis took an early lead in the first set, but Seton Hall responded by going on a 15-3 run. Saint Francis was able to get another few points on the board before the Hall went on another scoring run to make it 23-11. A service error by the Red Flash and a Haylee Gasser kill ended the set with a win for the Pirates.  

 

Very similar to the beginnings of the first set, Saint Francis came out of the break charging out of the break with an early lead but not enough to hold back the Pirates. Seton Hall went on another 9-3 run with Julia Wilkins back-to-back kills making it 12-8. The Red Flash cut their deficit to only down by two but yet again not enough and the Hall closed out the second set with a 13-3 burst and Gasser toping it off with back-to-back kills.  

 

When it came to the third set, the Pirates did not give the Red Flash enough time to figure out what was happening as they took a 10-1 lead in the beginning of the set. Then very similar to the first set a service error by Saint Francis and a kill by Madison Salkowski ended the match with a victory for the Pirates as they earned their first road win.  

 

Senior Gasser and freshman Wilkins each recorded 12 kills in this morning’s game. While senior Maggie Cvelbar had a season-high 34 assists to go with eight digs and had four service aces for the Hall. As the Pirates took on Akron later that night, Akron took an early lead, but the Pirates fought back to make it even at 7-7. The Zips then went on a scoring run, yet the Pirates closed the deficit and tied it up once again at 14 apiece. It was then a back and forth between the Hall and the Zips. Akron was then able to end set with a 6-1 scoring run to end the match at 25-19.  

 

The Pirates came out of the break to start with an early surge of points to take the lead 7-4 in the second set. Yet that didn’t last very long as the Zips fought back to make it an even seven. Seton Hall and Akron exchanged points from then until the Zips took a three-point lead over the Pirates. The Hall was able to get a few more points to close their deficit only by two to make it 19-17. A kill by Gasser then helped by the Pirates down by one but it wasn’t enough as the Zips went on a scoring run to end the set at 25-20. 

 

The Hall was able to get on the board early in the third set with a few errors by Akron to make it 6-3. The Zips fought back to shorten the deficit, yet the Pirates still had control of the lead making it 12-9 going into a timeout called by the Zips. Akron was able to tie it up and both teams kept exchanging points until the Zips went on a scoring run to take the lead 20-17. The Pirates were able to fight back from their score deficit but not enough as they lost 25-22 ending the match with a sweep in sets from Akron.  

 

Wilkins had a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs, while Gasser had 13 kills. Cvelbar had 28 assists to go with seven digs, making her just one dig shy of reaching 500 for her career.  The Pirates will next travel to Virginia as they take on William & Mary in the George Mason Invitational on Friday, September 20, at 4 p.m. 

 

Madi Travisano can be reached at madisyn.travisano@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Sports, Volleyball, WSOU

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