Depth key as Lehigh comes back to beat NJIT, 3-2

Tuesday, September 10

Bethlehem, Pa.

7:00 PM

Lehigh University

5-3

NJIT

1-7

NJIT

Lehigh

Photo by: Justin Lafleur

Depth key as Lehigh comes back to beat NJIT, 3-2

9/10/2019 10:31:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score Photo Gallery

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — After falling behind 2-0 to open the match, the Mountain Hawks found themselves in a different position for the first time at home in 2019. But Lehigh rallied behind a consistent-hitting second half of the match and took three straight sets to come away with a 3-2 victory Tuesday night against NJIT at Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall. The win gives the Mountain Hawks (5-3) five straight victories, the longest such streak since they won eight straight to open last season.

The first two sets were forgettable for the Mountain Hawks, hitting .208 in the first as a team and then .116 in the second. Lehigh attempted to come from behind in the second set to force extra points, but the Highlanders (1-7) held on for the 28-26 victory.

NJIT struggled to begin the third set, losing five straight points for Lehigh to take a 10-5 lead. It was Lehigh who continued to take control of the lead, getting out to a 19-14 advantage before the Highlanders called timeout. Hannah Wright's kill from Sarah Carman sealed the deal and started the comeback for Lehigh.

Up 4-3 to begin the fourth set, Lehigh went on a tremendous 7-1 run to take a 9-3 lead, which forced NJIT to call a timeout. The Mountain Hawks took four of the next five points to surge ahead, 13-4 after a kills from Emily Poole and Julia Pressly. It was back-and-forth for the rest of the set before Carman notched the final kill to get the victory. Lehigh hit .375 as a team in the fourth set with 14 kills over 32 attack attempts.

The fifth and final set was Lehigh's through-and-through, as the Mountain Hawks took an impressive 9-1 advantage before the Highlanders won two straight points. Dual kills from Pressly added two points to the Mountain Hawks' total before NJIT won two back. Lehigh then took four of the next five points to end the set and the match, 15-6.

"Certainly it was not our best performances in sets 1 and 2," said head coach Alexa Keckler, following the win. "We completely turned things around in sets 3, 4 and 5. Honestly, the fact that we have a deep bench is great and they all stepped in to change things up and get a flow going. We definitely had a slow start and I think we need to continue to focus on coming out in a more aggressive manner instead of feeling our way through it."

Depth was a key for the Mountain Hawks on Tuesday, with freshman Natalie Mavroidis, sophomores Victoria Jepson and Alina Lam and senior Jess Donaldson all contributing mightily. Fifth-year Victoria Hemsath got key minutes for Lehigh, notching seven kills.

"We know Tori has the hammer and her being able to come in and add to the match was extremely helpful," said Keckler. "She was pretty much unstoppable especially in the fifth set. For us as a staff, it's just awesome to see that every kid has a team-first mentality, that was just exciting to be able to see."

It was a high profile night for Julia Pressly, who finished her night with 16 kills on 37 attempts for a .297 attack percentage. She also tallied eight digs. Emily Poole had 13 kills, three digs and five total blocks, while Lauren Bright had nine kills on 15 attempts for a .467 mark. She also managed three block assists as well. Libero Allison Garrett had 19 digs.

For sophomore Sarah Carman, her last five matches continue to become more and more impressive, tallying a career-high 50 assists. It was the first instance that a Lehigh player had at least 50 assists since Megan Polak '19 did so on Nov. 7, 2017. She also had 10 digs for her second double-double of the year.
The win bumps Lehigh's record to 5-2 over NJIT all-time. The Mountain Hawks have won the last four matchups over the Highlanders.

Lehigh will take to the road for the next month, first with the Hilton Philadelphia at Penn's Landing Cherry and White Challenge, hosted by Temple this weekend. The Mountain Hawks will face Columbia on Friday at 4 p.m. before taking on Radford at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday and the Owls at 7 p.m.

"We're going to have to take the next few days to reconvene and let the first two sets marinate and figure out what went wrong and how we can get into a better flow earlier in the match," Keckler said. "But it's going to be good competition. We were able to fight back for something we could have easily have given up in the third set. I'm super proud of their relentlessness and their desire to come out on top and that was great to see that they had that fight in them and could go get it."

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Gallery: (9/10/2019) Volleyball vs. NJIT, 9/10/19