Lehigh University
Fairleigh Dickinson
Lehigh takes down FDU 3-1
9/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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NEW YORK, N.Y. – The Lehigh volleyball team defeated Fairleigh Dickinson University 3-1 in its first match of the Columbia Classic Friday night. After falling behind 18-10 in the fourth set the Mountain Hawks battled back to take a 22-21 lead late in the set. Lehigh was able to complete the comeback and defeat the Knights 25-22. With the win Lehigh is now at .500 on the season with a 6-6 record after starting off the season 1-5.
“We stayed very level and didn’t panic,” head coach Jenny Maurer said. “A lot of teams tend to fall apart when they get down, but we battled and tried to get one point at a time.”
The Mountain Hawks came out in the first set and built a 17-11 lead which they would not relinquish as they went on to take the set 25-15. Fairleigh Dickinson rebounded in the second set defeating the Mountain Hawks 25-20. The two teams battled it out late into the third set and were tied 19-19. Lehigh was able to close out the set with the final six points to win 25-19.
Sophomore Angelika Kopacz led the Mountain Hawks attack with a career-high 20 kills and a season-high 20 digs. Kopacz finished the match with .303 hitting percentage.
Junior captain Brittany Dickinson set up the attack with a season-high 42 assists and had 11 digs for a double-double. Lehigh’s other captain senior Mo McReynolds contributed 16 kills and finished with a .353 hitting percentage. Sophomore Jessica Kudirka played solid defensively and tallied 10 digs in the win.
“I was proud of both Angelika and Mo tonight,” Maurer said. “They played very well and weren’t making any errors. Jessica Kurdika had another strong game defensively for us and was good on serve-receives.”
The Mountain hawks were able to play nearly mistake free with only nine reception errors during the match. Lehigh was very effective on free ball transition and it was another big factor in the win.
“We faced some strong competition at the front end of our schedule,” Maurer said. “We learn from each match and keep improving as a team.”
The Mountain Hawks will return to action tomorrow afternoon when they take on Bryant at 2:30 p.m. and they will close out the tournament against host Columbia at 7:30 p.m.
