College Volleyball - Sacred Heart Invitational
Rider University 3, College of Holy Cross 0
Brant All-Tournament honors
FAIRFIELD, Conn.?Most college students only know one nine o'clock and it's not A.M. The Rider University volleyball team overcame that fact and defeated Holy Cross (0-3) on Saturday morning to finish undefeated at the Sacred Heart Invitational this weekend.
The Broncs defeated the Crusaders in three sets (25-12, 25-23, 25-19) at the Pitt Center.
"It feels great to finish the tournament undefeated," said senior Lindsay Brant (Long Beach, N.Y./Long Beach). "We've trained really hard to turn things around and that effort is showing on the court." Brant finished the weekend with 20 kills, 12 digs and seven service aces to earn All-Tournament honors. Brant accounted for 17 of Rider's points in the two matches.
Rider, who defeated the University of Hartford 3-0 on Friday night, has won two straight after splitting four matches last weekend at the La Salle Invitational.
"I wasn't worried about the start time," said head coach Emily Ahlquist. "We started fast and strong in the first set and won by 13 points. We ate a good breakfast and the team was raring to go. I think we let up a little bit when we won the first set and we had to dig down and keep fighting. It was a nice win because we didn't play our best volleyball. We fought through and stayed within ourselves to finish strong."
"It's huge when you aren't at your best and yet you dig down and find a way to get it done," Ahlquist added. "It means your team is growing as student-athletes. We didn't roll over, we kept fighting and took care of the things that we could control."
With the win, Rider (4-2) had already doubled its win total from a year ago and has started a season winning four of six for the first time since beginning the 2003 campaign 5-2.
"We don't talk about last year," said Ahlquist. "It is a new season and that's all we are focused on. We stay in the present and take things one point at a time. Our confidence is more from the cumulative of each point and not necessarily each match result."
The Broncs were led by Brant who had 10 kills, eight digs and five service aces. "Lindsay had a really good, sold weekend," said Ahlquist. "Having good senior leaders is really important. When you have solid senior leadership [along with senior Lacey Johnson], you are able to do more things with your lineup and get everyone involved."
Johnson (Centennial, Colo./Grandview) finished the match with 11 kills and six digs.
"It went pretty well," said Brant. "We fell a little flat after the first set but we picked it up and got the win."
The tournament featured Rider, Holy Cross, Hartford, Bryant and the host Pioneers.
In the first set, Rider used an early 9-1 run (five straight serves by junior Amy Jeary) to open up an eight point lead on the way to the 13 point win. The Broncs had 15 kills in the opening set led by Brant with four and sophomore Katelyn Thompson (Tucson, Ariz./Catalina Foothills) with three. Jeary's (Depew, N.Y./St. Mary's) 10 digs were her third double-digit dig effort of the season and Thompson finished with six kills in the match.
The second set saw the Crusaders on a crusade. With Rider leading 19-17, Holy Cross went on a 5-0 run to lead by three at 22-19. Trailing 23-20, the Broncs matched the Crusader's 5-0 run with one of their own, two aces and a kill by Brant, taking the set by two. Johnson led the Broncs with four kills in the set along with three aces and two kills by Brant.
"We had some big serves by everyone when we were down in the second set," Brant remembered. "Our serving really got us back into it and toward the end of the set, we knew what we had to do to finish it out."
Tied at 14 in the third set, Rider went on a 4-0 run, (two service aces by Brant) to take a four point lead as the Broncs won the set by six to clinch the match. Brant also had four kills in the set with sophomore Elyse Grassmuck (San Antonio, Texas/La Vernia) adding six assists.
Grassmuck had 15 assists and four digs in the match with sophomore Amanda Piccolini (St. Clairsville, Ohio/St. Clairsville) adding 12 assists.
"Keeping everyone involved is by design," Ahlquist said. "It makes you harder to defend and it allows the players to be solid in several areas which makes us more versatile as the season goes on."
Rider improved to 2-0 all-time against Holy Cross.
The Broncs travel to Washington, D.C. September 12-13, opening competition at the George Washington Invitational against St. Francis (NY) Friday afternoon.
After nine straight matches on the road to open the season, Rider begins the home portion of the schedule with a non-conference match in Alumni Gym against Wagner at 6:00pm on September 17.
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