The New Haven volleyball team honored former coach and program’s creator Debbie Chin with yet another win. After the renaming of the court, the team played the Le Moyne Dolphins Saturday, Sept. 30 and won 3-0.  

All three sets were evenly matched. In the first set, New Haven allowed a few points at the start, but quickly brought it back up to 19-16 when Le Moyne called for a timeout. Le Moyne only scored one more point after that, and the Chargers took the first set with an eight point lead, winning 25-17. Lead player Alex Bussey finished with 11 kills overall, and a .368 hitting percentage.  

Bussey said, “Playing for Debbie and the legendary alumni [was the most exciting part]. They have high expectations for us because they have been so successful and getting to show them how far we’ve come.” 

The subsequent sets continuously became more difficult. The second set started with a point for New Haven, but Lemoyne brought it back quickly taking the lead by a point here and there. It wasn’t until New Haven was 11-7 that they called for a timeout.

The Dolphins came back fiercer than before, bringing up their score to 18 points. But New Haven would not allow it, and finished the set 25-18. Junior Mallory Nowicki, coming in second to Bussey, helped skin the fin with her nine kills and two blocks aided by Kristine Rios with 31 assists. 

During the third set, Le Moyne kicked it up a notch giving the Chargers a run for their money. Le Moyne started off with the first several points, having a total of 14 kills this set. Junior Lindsey Kim, offset the Dolphins onslaught by defending 19 of their attacks. While senior Lexis Peterson come out of the game with four blocks, followed by Bussey and Nowicki both with two each.  

The third set was by far the toughest for the Chargers. 

Bussey said that the hardest part was, “keeping everyone in sync when we’re stuck in a rotation and trying to keep the energy up when we made errors.” 

From sheer will and their determination, New Haven came out on top 25-22 winning the match for the legendary Debbie Chin.

Peterson said, “It was such an honor playing for Debbie, we wouldn’t be here without her. She started this program and made it great.”