NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – The Salisbury University volleyball team pulled off two massive wins at the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference (C2C) Invitational on Saturday at the Freeman Center, making quick work of the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs, 3-0 (25-12, 25-19, 25-13), before outlasting the hosting Christopher Newport Captains, 3-2 (25-21, 21-25, 22-25, 33-31, 15-13). The Sea Gulls have now won six matches in a row and 15 of their last 17 dating back to Sept. 13.
MATCH ONE
Up 10-8 early in the first set, the Sea Gulls burned rubber as an
Alyssa DeWaal kill started a 13-2 extended run to balloon the margin to 23-10. After UCSC snagged two back,
Amanda Meschi powered one down and
Annabelle Weis landed a service ace to salt it away, 25-12.
Set two saw SU solidify a big lead early, with
Julie Altieri and
Sophia Tapia rising up for a tandem block to make it 10-3. The Banana Slug put together a late 7-1 rally to trim the hole from 21-10 to 22-17, but kills from Tapia and
Kiley McTaggart deflated the run and Salisbury put it away on an attack error 25-19.
After spotting UCSC four of the first five in set three, Salisbury drew even at 6-6 and soon after zoomed ahead with a five-point flourish, DeWaal capping the run that put SU on top 12-7. The Slugs could never find their footing beyond that and SU closed on a 13-5 flourish, riding one last attack error to an easy 25-13 victory.
Game Notes
- Gwen Eustace paced a balanced Sea Gull attack with eight kills at a .538 clip. She also rose up for five blocks (three solo).
- Kiley McTaggart matched Eustace with eight kills to go along with four digs and two service aces.
- Alyssa DeWaal and Amanda Meschi contributed six kills apiece.
- Julie Altieri dished out 23 assists with nine digs, two kills, and two block assists.
- Elizabeth Villegas posted 13 digs and six assists.
- Salisbury hit .321 as a team, topping out at .407 in the opening set, and limited UCSC to a .044 swing rate.
- SU dealt nine aces without conceding one and outblocked the Slugs 8-2.
- The win clinches the Sea Gulls' fourth straight 20-win season and 31st in the 48-year history of the program.
MATCH TWO
After the Captains netted the match's first two points, the Sea Gulls strung together six in a row with a
Sophia Tapia service ace serving as the capper to make it 6-2. CNU settled down from their and caught up late, 19-19. SU benefitted from back-to-back attack errors, then after another Captain point
Amanda Meschi lashed a kill to spark a 4-1 closing run.
Gwen Eustace finished the job on a feed from
Julie Altieri to give Salisbury the 25-21 set-one dub.
CNU responded by taking the second and third sets in near-identical fashion. Up 22-21 late in set two, Alyssa Dozier bookended a three-point string with a kill and a block to draw the home side even, 25-21. In the third, the Captains flipped a 20-19 deficit into a 24-20 lead with five straight, then after two SU points to answer Dozier slammed one down to slam the door, 25-22.
The fourth set saw the two sides match each other step-for-step, dancing evenly to the 23-23 mark. Avery Hanly's kill set up match point for CNU, but Eustace kept her team alive with a kill and Salisbury fought off four straight match points to keep it at 27-27. Tapia then gave SU a 28-27 lead with a strike, but the Captains survived a pair of set points before inching ahead again 30-29. The Sea Gulls battled through the next two match points, then
Alyssa DeWaal landed a kill and
Annabelle Weis dealt a clutch service ace, clinching the set 33-31 and sending it to the fifth.
Set five opened with CNU going up 4-2, but the Sea Gulls countered with five straight – four on Captain errors – to surge ahead 7-4. Up 9-7 later, back-to-back kills by Altieri and
Kiley McTaggart boosted the SU margin to 11-7. Undaunted, Samantha Dorn's kill jumpstarted three in a row for the home side to cut the deficit to 11-10.
From there the teams traded haymakers till the final bell. Eustace cracked a kill to give SU match point at 14-12, then after a counter-kill by Dozier, Eustace rattled the floor one more time, sealing the deal on the Sea Gulls' most dramatic win of the season, 15-13.
Game Notes
- Gwen Eustace finished with a team-high 17 kills (.429), none bigger than the final two of the fifth set to win the match. She also recorded three blocks (two solo).
- Eustace's third kill of the match gave the senior middle blocker 1,000 for her career. She finished the day with 1,014 kills, just 50 back of Lindsay Lawson '07 (1,064) for 12th in school history.
- Amanda Meschi matched her season high with 14 kills to go along with three digs.
- Alyssa DeWaal set a new career high with 12 kills, swinging .300 for the match.
- Sophia Tapia went for 11 kills (.360), three solo blocks, and two service aces.
- Kiley McTaggart notched 10 kills and six digs, plus two solo blocks.
- Julie Altieri established a new career high with 58 assists, tied for the 11th-most in single-match SU history. Altieri also completed her 13th double-double of the season (45 career) with 12 digs, as well as four kills.
- Elizabeth Villegas patrolled the backline to the tune of a career-high 27 digs, while Sophia Blaufuss added 10.
- Blaufuss and Annabelle Weis each registered two of Salisbury's eight aces.
- The Sea Gulls swung .250 as a team, including .286 in the decisive fifth set.
- SU fought off a total of six match points in the marathon fourth set.
- Salisbury has now won three consecutive five-set matches after dropping its first two that went the distance this season.
- The win snaps a three-match losing streak for the Sea Gulls against CNU. Saturday's showdown played out remarkably similar to last year's C2C Tournament championship, in which SU forced a fifth set by winning the fourth 32-30 before the Captains prevailed 15-13 in the fifth.
The Sea Gulls will close out October with three more matches away from home, starting on Wednesday with a visit to Marymount (Va.). First serve from Arlington, Va. is set for 6 p.m.
Salisbury University is a proud member of NCAA Division III with primary membership in the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference, along with affiliate membership in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (football, men's & women's swimming), Coastal Lacrosse Conference (men's lacrosse), State University of New York Athletic Conference (field hockey), and Colonial Women's Golf Conference (women's golf). With over 500 student-athletes in 23 varsity sports, SU is recognized as one of the nation's most competitive intercollegiate athletics programs regardless of division, featuring dedicated coaches and staff that foster excellence on and off the field. The Sea Gulls have won a combined 23 team national championships, 24 individual national championships, and 205 conference championships, and have produced 53 Academic All-Americans.
To Make Tomorrow Yours at Salisbury University, and learn more about Sea Gull Athletics' tradition of excellence, visit SUSeaGulls.com or follow on social media @SUSeaGulls.
