The New Haven Chargers volleyball team defeated the Pace Setters on Tuesday night (Oct. 31) by a score of 3-0 (25-19, 25-17, 25-14) in frightening fashion.  

Just how dominant is this Chargers volleyball team? They didn’t lose a single match in the month of October, playing in a total of nine matches. In that span, they only lost four sets. Overall, they’ve won their last 13 matches. This comes after a lowly 4-7 start. To compare, last year’s NE10 championship squad was 13-6 at this point in the season, and ended up 16-8. This season’s record is 17-7, with three games left in the regular season. This year’s team hasn’t lost a game in the NE10, while last year’s conference record was 11-3. 

The match began with Pace jumping out to a quick 5-2 lead. Not before long, the Chargers struck back, and tied up the match 8-8. There was no clearcut lead, as the match again tied at 10 and then 13. From there, New Haven pushed to make the score 16-13, and never looked back. Serves by Kristine Rios led the Chargers to the brink of victory, and after a short Pace run at 24-15, Big Blue shut the door at 15-19. 

In the second set, the Chargers were hot. A 6-2 lead allowed New Haven to mush onto a 25-17 victory. Dangerous kills by Carol Martins frustrated the Setters in a set where they only held the lead once (2-1). The third set would not be so lopsided.

After the second set, the team hosted a costume contest to get fans into the Halloween spirit. The contest was judged by the men’s club volleyball team. Flo from Progressive won the contest with Ash from Pokémon and a bag of jelly beans placing second and third.       

Pace came into the third set looking to push around the Chargers. Exchanging blows up until 5-5, New Haven turned it on and stopped playing around. Led again by Martins and freshman Kali Greathead, the home team got to a 10-6 lead, and didn’t let it go. Before Pace knew it, they were down 20-12. From there, serves byBriana Mirmina finished off the match, and extended New Haven’s undefeated NE10 season. 

New Haven returns to Charger Gymnasium for its home regular season finale on Saturday, Nov. 4, at 1 p.m., against Southern New Hampshire University.