Lehigh falls behind, drops five-set match to Colgate

Friday, October 12

Hamilton, NY

7 p.m.

Lehigh University

16-4 (5-3Patriot)

Colgate

9-10 (4-3Patriot)

Lehigh

Colgate University

Photo by: Josh Liddick

Lehigh falls behind, drops five-set match to Colgate

10/12/2018 10:40:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

HAMILTON, N.Y. — It wasn't the night the Lehigh volleyball team was looking for, especially after dropping a heartbreaker to American at home on Tuesday night. The Mountain Hawks (16-4, 5-3 PL) found themselves in an early 2-0 hole to start the match, but won third and fourth sets before falling in the final set. Lehigh dropped its second straight match, 13-25, 20-25, 25-20, 25-17, 13-15 on Friday night.

The Raiders (9-10, 4-3 PL) dominated the first two sets of the game, especially with Lehigh struggling to hit the ball especially in the first, finishing with a .074 mark as a team.

By the end of the second set, it seemed as if the Raiders had complete control of the rest of the contest, but head coach Alexa Keckler turned to some new, fresh faces in order to gain an advantage via adjustments, which had proved to be a way to re-energize the team in many different moments during the season already.

"We brought some new players on the court and got some energy from that," said Keckler. "Unfortunately we just didn't play as well as we would have liked to in that fifth set."

With sophomore Claire Nagelhout, the Mountain Hawks got a new perspective on the court with five kills, three blocks and a .714 hitting percentage. Senior Victoria Hemsath had five kills, while senior Megan Polak also had some quality time on the court, registering a kill, 12 assists and two digs.

"We've got a really talented bench and we need to make those roster decisions every time we step out on the court," Keckler said. "It's great to see them have that kind of success, especially in the third and fourth sets."

Despite not being able to close out the match, Lehigh did have solid performances from many of the usual suspects, but sophomore Hannah Wright led the way with 13 kills, six digs and four blocks, while sophomore Sabrina Lancaster tallied a double-double with 11 kills and 12 digs, hitting .235 for the match.

Junior Julia Pressly finished the match with 11 kills and nine digs, while junior Emily Poole didn't have as good of a night as she is used to, finishing with six kills, two digs and only one block to her credit.

Senior Emily Develle continued her bid to become Lehigh's all-time leader in digs, when she recorded 22 for the match, putting her only 105 behind Rachel Charles' (2010-13) 1,693. Freshman Alina Lam finished her night with yet another double-double, her seventh straight with 36 assists and 10 digs.

Through all the trials and tribulations, the Mountain Hawks had an average hitting percentage of .215, still below what the team has been averaging so far this season.

Lehigh held the Raiders to a .214 mark, while Alli Lowe finished with 19 kills, Alex Stein had 13 kills and 21 digs, Taylor Flaherty hit .409 with 10 kills, two digs and two blocks, and Julia Kurowski tallied 52 assists to go along with her 10 digs.

The five-set loss is something that has occurred to the Mountain Hawks this season all too often, falling in five in all three Patriot League losses this season to Navy, American and now, Colgate. Now, Keckler and the Mountain Hawks turn their focus to heading to Annapolis next Friday to take on Navy for the second time this season.

"Overall, the fifth sets really are a toss-up and that's what we need to be focusing on right now," said Keckler. "But we always fight hard and we don't go down easy.

"Now we get to take a couple days off and recover and we'll tackle things on Monday. The second time around (against Navy), we need to make sure we do the things we did well last time and we need to make adjustments accordingly."

Friday's matchup with the Midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy will be streamed live on the Patriot League Network at 7 p.m.

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