Photo courtesy Quinnipiac Athletics
By: Phil Akre
Quinnipiac women’s volleyball snapped a three game losing streak Wednesday night, as it defeated Fairleigh Dickinson University 3-1. The Bobcats closed out the win with a dominant fourth set, winning 24-14.
The Bobcats improved their record to 6-3 overall, and remain undefeated at home this season. As for the Knights, they fell to 0-7 on the season.
The first set was a tight battle, with junior middle hitter Elizabeth Kloos leading the way for the Bobcats with four kills. The Bobcats went on a 5-0 run while up by three, expanding their lead to 22-14, forcing the Knights to call their second and final timeout of the set.
The second set came down to the wire. After sophomore Jen Coffey’s kill gave Quinnipiac the 25-24 lead, Fairleigh Dickinson’s Emma Liller responded with kill as well. However, the Knights then had two attacking errors leading the Bobcats to a 27-25 victory.
After jumping out to an early 5-1 lead in the third set, the Bobcats eventually went up 16-10. Despite the large leads, Quinnipiac couldn’t close out the match, and lost the set 25-23. However, head coach Kris Czaplinski was confident in his team’s ability to comeback strong in the fourth set.
“The captain’s did a great job vocally on the floor, they got everybody involved,” Czaplinski said. “Maria (Pansari) went back to running a great offense and we were good behind the service line tonight. We were executing offensively from all positions.”
Pansari echoed her coach’s statements, saying, “We just went out and fought, we knew the third set wasn’t our best and we could do so much better, so we just went out and did our best.”
After totaling a staggering 52 assists by the end of the night, Pansari thanked her teammates for her success.
“I was just trying my best to connect with the hitters. The passing and the defense were amazing, so I was just focusing on that, talking to my hitters. We’ve been working a lot on it in practice, and it converted over to the game.”
Quinnipiac was dominant in the fourth set, as they never trailed. Kloos was appreciative of her teammates, en route to her 20.5-point night.
“It was a team effort, for sure. The passing was awesome,” Kloos said. “I was able to put the ball away, they put me in a good position. We knew what we had to do and we knew we were the better team. We can’t get caught up with the little things.”
Kloos, along with her teammates, feels that the team’s chemistry has been improving day by day.
“It’s a whole different team this year, very exciting.”
Quinnipiac will face La Salle University, a team it lost to 0-3 earlier this season, at the Friar Classic in Providence on Friday, September 9 at 5 p.m.
