New York, NY - Hunter College women's volleyball opened up the 2017 campaign with a five-set thriller, getting the victory over Manhattanville College with scores of 22-25, 25-16, 21-25, 25-9 and 15-11 on Friday night.
The Purple and Gold took the early lead in the first set, but the Valiants eventually pulled ahead by four. Kills from
Miranda Hogan and
Kendra Moore sparked a five-point run to help the Hawks pull ahead, 21-20, but Manhattanville managed to outscore the Hawks 5-1 to get the first set win.
The second set remained close until Hunter went on a 8-1 run, featuring kills from
Marlena Budna and
Taylor Haiduk, to take an 18-8 lead. The lead was too wide for the Valiants to catch up as
Julia Connolly sealed the 25-15 second set win with a kill of her own.
The third was another close one with 10 tied scores, but Manhattanville ended up pulling ahead for good off a Hunter attack error to give them a 2-1 match lead going into the fourth.
The Hawks were dominant in the fourth set, capitalizing on several Valiant errors to take the early lead. The Purple and Gold were able to get a 19-6 edge off an amazing 11-1 run as Haiduk recorded three of the team's four kills. Haiduk tallied another to make the score 21-8 as the team closed out the 25-9 victory and sent the match into a fifth set.
Haiduk, Moore and
Emily Wasson each got a kill in the opening points of the fifth to give Hunter the lead, but Manhattanville quickly caught up to trail by just one point. From there the Hawks went to work, totaling seven kills in the remaining nine points from Wasson, Haiduk, Budna and Connolly to secure the 15-11 win and the 3-2 match victory.
The Hawks hit .148 in the win, while holding the Valiants to a .036 hitting percentage.
Haiduk led the team with 16 kills and 17 digs, while Budna followed with 11 kills and a team-high eight blocks. Moore earned nine kills and six blocks and Wasson recorded seven in the match.
Haley Trunkett paced the Hawk's defense with 23 digs as Connolly added 16 of her own. Hogan tallied 40 assists for the Purple and Gold.
The squad returns to action on Wednesday, September 6 when they host Stevens Tech at 6 p.m.
