New York- The Hunter College women's volleyball team swept Lehman College in the opening round of the CUNYAC tournament Wednesday night at the Hunter Sportsplex.
The Hawks (12-12, 6-1 CUNYAC) were hot out the gate as a pair of service aces put them up 2-0. Lehman (1-16, 1-6 CUNYAC) got on the board off of a bad set but Hunter answered with six consecutive points. A pair of errors put the score at 3-8 until Hunter went on to score 11 points with no response from the Lightening. The road team would score two more points in the set, but a pair of kills by
Mariam Ouattara and one from
Alexa Sayson, combined with errors on Lehman to give the Hawks a 25-6 victory for the first set.
The second saw a similar dance as the Purple and Gold took the first three points. Lehman scored off of a bad set again and the pattern would continue with Hunter scoring a trio two more times, interupted by a single point from Lehman. Up 9-3, the Hawks took off again for another 10 point run marked by three service aces from
Erin Dugan. Lehman finally recorded a tally at 19-4 and would exchange points with the Purple and Gold until it was 23-7, before going on its longest run of the set, scoring four unanswered. At 23-10, the Hawks reached game-point off of an error. Lehman would manage one more point but a kill from Ouattara would put the second set away, 25-11.
The final set of the night saw a touch more action. Again, Hunter got on the board first but the two teams would go back-and-forth with Hunter edging out an extra point every so often to put the home team ahead, 13-9. The Lightning scored five straight until the Hawks responded with a five point run of their own. Trailing by four, Lehman added a pair of points off of a service ace and a kill before the Hawks soared to victory, grabbing seven straight points to close out the set, 25-16, and take the match in three.
Hunter was led by
Brittany Wang with 10 digs and nine kills, as Dugan came away with a career-high four service aces.
The Purple and Gold advance to the semifinals as it battles cross-town rival no. 2 Baruch. The team looks to avenge its sole conference loss of the season tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m.
