By: Drew Feinberg
The Quinnipiac women’s volleyball team defeated Siena in straight sets on Wednesday night, improving to 4-1 in the MAAC, and 5-13 overall.
Siena, which is 0-15 overall, has yet to win a single set in all of its matches. However the Saints looked very impressive in the early stages of the match.
After initially going down 12-4 in the first set, the Saints took a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, the dynamic of the set changed. Siena clawed its way back, only down by two late into the set.
However the Bobcats were too much for the Saints to handle, winning the first set 25-21.
In the second set, the Bobcats and the Saints went back and forth, trading point for point.
Freshman Dakota Johnson led the Saints with four kills in the second set as Siena made it a 19-18 game. But a late surge of offense from Quinnipiac closed out the set, and the Bobcats won 25-23.
Set number three looked nothing like the first two.
After one quick point from Siena, Quinnipiac went on a 4-0 run and never looked back, winning the third set 25-16. Senior captain Elizabeth Kloos dominated in the final set, tallying eight kills.
Three Bobcats (Kloos, Natalie Alechko and Kat Miller) each posted 10 kills on the day. Freshmen Michelle Cuervo (four kills), and Morgan Sherwin (three kills) helped bolster the team lead late in the match, filling in for the injured Jen Coffey.
Head Coach Kris Czaplinski had a lot to say about the play of his freshmen.
“They didn’t shy away from the competition at all, which was great to see,” Czaplinski said. “We’re definitely going to need them going down this long stretch of schedule.”
Quinnipiac travels to Niagara Falls, NY on Saturday to face the Niagara Purple Eagles. Niagara is tied for first in the conference with Fairfield, and the Bobcats sit just behind in solo third place.
Injury Problems
Junior outside hitter Jen Coffey left Sunday’s match against Rider with a leg injury in the second set. Coffey was on the bench on Wednesday against Siena with what looked to be a small cast on her foot.
The offense struggled a bit without Coffey, who leads the team with 177 kills in all matches this season.
Czaplinski was not worried about how the team would play with the absence of Coffey in the match against Siena.
“We have everything we need on this team,” he said. “If someone goes down we can take someone off the bench and they’re going to do a great job contributing.”
Czaplinski also said Coffey is almost ready to return to action.
“She’s progressing really quick, she should be ready soon,” he said.
Junior right side hitter Kat Miller, who is second on the team with 152 kills, walked off the court limping at the end of the first set. However the junior hitter continued to play the final two sets.
“I couldn’t jump at all, so I had to play in the back row (for the rest of the match).” Miller said.
