WEST HAVEN, Conn. – The University of New Haven women’s volleyball team took the court at Charger Gymnasium for the first time in 2012, sweeping the New York Institute of Technology on Wednesday evening by set scores of 25-21, 25-19 and 25-23.
New Haven improves to 4-1 on the season, while the Bears drop to 4-1. NYIT had defeated Northeast-10 squads Southern New Hampshire and Pace in addition to victories over Caldwell and Post earlier this fall.
Keidy Candelaria (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico/Bayamon Military Academy) led all players with 13 kills. Kristy Atufunwa (Denver, Colo./Denver East) added eight finishers and fellow middle hitter Amber Cannady (Yonkers, N.Y./Charles E. Gorton) had seven on 15 errorless swings to record a .467 hitting percentage. Kristen Lee (Colorado Springs, Colo./Liberty) slammed home four kills, while Kea-Marie Olaso (Kailua, Hawai’i/Le Jardin Academy) and Margo Meteyer (Madison, Wisc./Madison West) each had one. As a team, the Chargers hit .245 (39-5-98) for the match.
Kaulana Ane (Paia, Hawaii/Kamehameha) ran the offense and dished out a match-high 31 assists in addition to five kills of her own Ane also landed three of New Haven’s five service aces, with Olaso accounting for the other two.
Defensively, Bai Zhang (China/Shan Dong Zi Bo No. 10 / China Shan Dong Normal University) helmed the back row with nine digs. Olaso added eight from the libero spot, Lee tallied six and Candelaria and Ane chipped in with five digs apiece. At the net, Candelaria and Atufunwa each had a hand in two of the Chargers’ three blocks.
NYIT was led by 12 kills from Savannah Donarski and an 11-kill, eight-dig performance from Shelby Cable. Marija Jovanovic and Damla Albayrak shared setting duties and dished out 18 and 14 helpers, respectively. Libero Tugce Sirdas contributed a team-best 13 digs. The Bears hit .114 (35-23-105) as a unit.
The Chargers raced out to a 5-1 lead in set one and would keep NYIT at arm’s length for the remainder of the frame. The Bears briefly trimmed the margin to one point at 9-8, but New Haven responded with three straight points to reopen a four-point advantage. Another three-point run, followed by a 2-0 spurt capped by an Olaso ace extended the lead to 22-16. The clubs traded points for the remainder of the set which allowed the Chargers to coast to a 25-21 victory.
The second set raced out to a 10-10 deadlock, which NYIT broke with a Katarina Sretenovic kill. That would ultimately be the Bears’ final lead of the set, as the Chargers won the next for rallies to take a 14-11 lead. NYIT would not score consecutive points for the remainder of the frame, as New Haven pulled away for a 25-19 win to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
An early four-point lead for the Chargers in the third set held up to a score of 15-11 and an NYIT timeout. The Chargers notched the first point out of the stoppage, but the Bears then put together an 8-2 stretch to knot the match at 18-18. The two squads alternated points up to a 23-23 stalemate before a Jovanovic hitting error and Lee’s fourth kill of the match ended the contest with a 25-23 Charger victory to complete the sweep.
After New Haven led wire-to-wire in set one, the final two frames had a combined 12 ties and eight lead changes.
After a week off from competition, New Haven returns to the court next Thursday, Sept. 20 for a match against visiting Bridgeport. First serve from Charger Gymnasium is set for 7 p.m. with all of the action broadcast live in high definition and available on most mobile devices on NewHavenChargers.com.
