Lehigh University
Providence
Volleyball wins first match of Tournament
9/11/2009 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Mountain Hawks did not let the home crowd down as they beat the Providence Friars in a hard fought match 3-2 Friday night at Leeman-Turner Arena. The win gives Lehigh its second in a row and bring its record to 3-5 on the season.
Lehigh came out of the gates firing on the Friars, who just got done playing the Rider Broncs in the first match of the day which saw Providence come out on top 3-1. The Mountain Hawks took a two set lead winning 25-21 and 27-25. Providence would not go easy as it went on to win the next two sets 25-22 and 27-25 forcing a fifth set.
The Mountain Hawks were able to pull everything together and finish off the Friars 15-10 in the final set. Lehigh came out victorious, but head coach Jenny Maurer knows there is still improvement to be made.
“What I was most proud of was that we had an off night, but stuck together and won our first five set match,” Maurer said. “We shouldn’t have put ourselves in that position, but we could have easily rolled over.”
Providence was able to capitalize on the Mountain Hawks’ mistakes and fight its way back into the match after losing the first two sets.
“We made a lot of service errors at crucial times,” Maurer said. “We gave away a lot of points and they took advantage of it.”
Senior Mo McReynolds stepped up when needed and ended up leading Lehigh with 18 kills. Junior Brittany Dickinson had 39 assists and Jessica Kudirka had five serving aces in the match. Defensively the Mountain Hawks were led by Emma Melendez who had 24 digs and Angelika Kopacz with 12.
The Mountain Hawks showed that they can step up and finish and that will be needed come tomorrow with two more tough matches.
“We’re starting to understand what works and how execute it,” Maurer said. “It was great to see us finish tonight, but we have to clean up some of the errors as we head into tomorrow.”
Lehigh will kick things off bright and early with a match against Rider at 10:00 a.m. in Leeman-Turner Arena on Saturday. The Mountain Hawks will finish up the tournament when they host Niagara at 4:00 p.m.
