WEST HAVEN, Conn. – The University of New Haven women’s volleyball team powered past visiting Bridgeport on Thursday at Charger Gym, sweeping the visiting Purple Knights by set scores of 25-18, 25-20 and 25-11. Kristen Lee (Colorado Springs, Colo./Liberty) led the Chargers with 14 kills and a .522 hitting percentage.
With the win, New Haven moves to 5-1 overall. Bridgeport, which won the NCAA Division II East Region Championship last fall, drops to 6-2. The Chargers have won three of the last four meetings with their in-state rivals.
Lee’s 14 kills came on just 23 swings with two attack errors for a .522 hitting percentage. Amber Cannady (Yonkers, N.Y./Charles E. Gorton) added 10 kills from the middle in addition to six blocks. Keidy Candelaria (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico/Bayamon Military Academy) contributed six finishers, Kristy Atufunwa (Denver, Colo./Denver East) had five, and Kea-Marie Olaso (Kailua, Hawai’i/Le Jardin Academy) and Ashley Dalton (Helena, Mont./Capital / Northern Arizona) each posted one.
Running the offense was Kaulana Ane (Paia, Hawaii/Kamehameha), who doled out 29 assists. The Chargers’ setter added two kills of her own as well as six digs and a solo block. Olaso led the back row with 15 digs from the libero spot, while Candelaria notched 12.
Margo Meteyer (Madison, Wisc./Madison West) was responsible for two of New Haven’s four service aces during a 12-0 Charger run that put the match away in the third set. Candelaria and Bai Zhang (China/Shan Dong Zi Bo No. 10 / China Shan Dong Normal University) landed the other two winners.
Ying Shen led the Purple Knights with nine kills. Fernanda Silva dished out 16 assists, and Taylor McBeth recorded a team-high 11 digs.
The Chargers posted the first four points of the match, guided by three straight Bridgeport attack errors, and kept the Purple Knights at an arm’s length of the remainder of the set. The visitors briefly pulled to within two points at 6-4, but an 8-1 run later in the set extended the cushion to double-digits at 18-8. The clubs traded points for the rest of the frame, which was more than enough for the Chargers to claim a 25-18 victory.
New Haven was once again out front early in the second set, winning the first five rallies. But the Purple Knights would battle back this time, eventually knotting the score at 9-9. The deadlock held to a 16-16 score, at which point an Atufunwa kill, an ace by Candelaria and a Bridgeport attack error widened the margin to three points and forced a Purple Knights’ timeout. The Chargers would nab the first two points out of the stoppage to build a 21-16 lead, and the five-point margin held up as the difference in a 25-20 set-two win.
Needing to take one more set to close out the Purple Knights, the Chargers started set three with a 3-1 lead. With that margin holding up to 8-6, New Haven put the match away with its longest run of the match. Led by strong service from Meteyer and three kills by Lee, the Chargers scored the next 12 points to open up a 20-6 lead. The teams would split the final 10 rallies as New Haven coasted to a sweep with a 25-11 triumph.
The Chargers hit .255 (39-13-102), while Bridgeport posted as many attack errors as kills for a hitting percentage of .000 (23-23-104). Eight of those errors were New Haven blocks, as the Chargers doubled up the visitors in that department, 8-4.
The Northeast-10 slate begins on Saturday, Sept. 22 at Le Moyne, and action returns to Charger Gymnasium on Tuesday, Sept. 25 with a 7 p.m. visit from Saint Anselm. The match against the Hawks will be broadcast live in high definition and available on most mobile devices on NewHavenChargers.com.
