Lehigh Completes Season Sweep Over Lafayette

EASTON, Pa. – It would take a grueling five sets, but the Lehigh volleyball team completed the season sweep over Lafayette with a 3-2 (25-20, 18-25, 25-17, 22-25, 15-6) victory on the road on Tuesday night. The Mountain Hawks improve to 6-3 in the Patriot League and 11-12 overall, while the Leopards fall to 1-8 in the PL and 3-16 overall.

"It was a great match and Lafayette came in well prepared," said head coach Bob Bertucci. "I thought we played up and down, but usually when we take a step backwards we take two steps forward and we did that tonight."

Lehigh came out of the gates strong in the fifth set with a 6-0 run on serves from Megan Polak. The Leopards handed the Mountain Hawks three points on that run with attack errors, while Polak recorded an ace and Julia Pressly contributed two kills. Another kill by Pressly combined with two kills by Victoria Hemsath extended the Lehigh lead to 9-1. After the second Lafayette timeout of the set, Lehigh claimed three of the final five points and took the fifth set, 15-6, to win the match.

After splitting the first two sets with Lafayette, the Brown and White found itself in a serious deficit in the third set, trailing 12-5. An attack error by the Leopards gave a point to Lehigh and started what would end up as a 13-0 run for the Mountain Hawks. Hemsath recorded four kills to lead LU on the run, including the final two points that put Lehigh ahead 18-12. Hemsath eventually gave her team the victory as she recorded her fifth kill of the set to give LU its 25th point in the third set.

"I think we realized that we need to just go out there take care of our assignments. With everyone taking care of their job, we were able to gain some momentum," said Bertucci. "Tori came in and ignited that run in the third set. She had an opportunity and she did exactly what we needed her to do. That just fired up the whole team."

The Mountain Hawks won a tight battle in the first set as they hit a solid .281 with just three errors and 12 kills. The Leopards hit .162 collectively in the opening frame with six errors and 12 kills. Pressly led LU with four kills in the first set. The second set was a complete turnaround from the first as Lehigh hit .077 in the set with eight errors and 11 kills, while Lafayette hit .207 with five errors and 11 kills.

Pressly led Lehigh with 14 kills on the night to go with a .250 hitting percentage, while Hemsath contributed 13 kills with a team-high .407 hitting percentage. Polak handed out 38 assists to go with eight digs and two service aces.

Lauren Bright continued her success at the net as she posted a season-high eight blocks to go with nine kills. Emily Develle also had a stellar night defensively as she finished with a match-high 24 digs.

Lehigh has now won its last eight-straight matches at the Kirby Sports Center. The last time Lafayette defeated Lehigh on its home court was on October 31, 2008.

The Mountain Hawks will return to action this weekend with two home Patriot League matches starting with Loyola on Friday at 7 p.m. before facing Navy on Saturday at 4 p.m.

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Team Stats

Julia Pressly

Victoria Hemsath

Lauren Bright

Kelly Bennett

Players Mentioned

Lauren Bright

Emily Develle

Victoria Hemsath

Megan Polak

Julia Pressly

Lehigh University Athletics

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