St. Elizabeth traveled to Bryn Athyn to take on the Bryn Mawr Owls, the Goucher College Gophers and the Gwynned Mercy College Griffins this past Saturday.
The Screaming Eagles started off the day exceptionally well, closing the first set out with a 25-22 win but the serve receive of the Eagles abandoned them in the second set and the Owls overwhelmed the Eagles 25-11. The 3rd set was a tight match until late when the Owls pulled away late to take the set 25-19. The 4th set was by far the best for both teams with multiple lead changes throughout the set as neither team could establish control.
CSE jumped out to a 21-19 lead behind 2 aces from Amy Cooper and then again 22-20 one serving rotation later. The Owls broke serve and ran off three straight points as the Eagles could not find their offense to take a commanding 24-22 lead. St. Elizabeth would not yield though and after a perfect pass from Rachel Hausler to Amy Cooper, Amy set up Katie Cooper for a vital kill to bring the Eagles within 1 at 23-24. Katie followed her sister's lead and served up 2 aces to give the Eagles the shot to take the set at 25-24. Bryn Mawr was able to sideout however and closed out the set and match at 27-25.
The Eagles' next match was against a powerful Goucher College team that was favored to sweep the day's matches. Although the Eagles were shorthanded due to an injury to Jenae Goodson, Jannet Chaudry filled in effectively for CSE in this match and versus Gwynned Mercy.
The Eagles fell behind early to Goucher 4-0 but fought back to tie the game at 5 early. The Gophers jumped out to a 18-8 lead but the Eagles kept clawing back getting on a 6-1 run that pulled them within 1 at 14-19. Goucher got the ball back and extended their lead back to 21-16 but the Eagles refused to quit and fought to within 2 at 20-22 and then again at 21-23. The comeback fell short though as the Gophers were able to close out the set 25-21.
The second saw a much more aggressive Eagles team but that aggressiveness also yielded numerous errors as CSE could not convert their opportunities into points and fell to the Gophers 25-11.
The Eagles rebounded nicely for the third set though. The team fought point by point with the Goucher Gophers as neither team could muster more than a 2 point lead at any point. After the Eagles jumped ahead at 18-17, Goucher ran off three straight points to take a crucial 2 point lead late in the match. The Eagles tried to come back and got as close as 22-23 but fell short as the Gophers took the set and match 25-22.
The Eagles' last match was against the Grifins of Gwynned Mercy and both teams came in 0W-2L for the day. CSE looked fatigued as the usually reliable passing deserted them and the defensive effort just was not evident through the first set. Katie Cooper kept the team in it hitting for 7 of the team's 9 kills in the set but it just wasn't enough offense as the Griffins pulled away late for a 25-21 win.
The second set was more of the same although the passing let the team down again and the Eagles could not muster much offense and fell 25-17. The 3rd set was more lively and more of what the Eagles expected of themselves. Although the team fell behind early again, key plays were made by various players to keep the team in the hunt. CSE fought back from a seemingly insurmountable 19-14 deficit to within 1 at 19-18 but the passing woes and hitting inefficiency returned late in the match and it cost the Eagles as Gwynned Mercy went on a 6-1 run to close out the match at 25-19.
Although various individuals deserve praise for their efforts, of note, Katie Cooper was the offensive workhorse of the team, putting down 35 kills of the team's 81 kills in the 3 matches (nearly 12 kills per match). She was also second on the team with 25 digs and in aces with 6. Amy Cooper is the other notable as she ran a very effective offense for the Eagles despite some of the passing issues at times. Amy had 66 assists and was the top ace producer at 8 aces. Amy was also had the 3rd highest number of digs at 17. Other Eagles who had an impact were Kareemah Muhammad who was by far the most efficient offensive weapon, hitting a .167 on her 15 kills. Also, veteran and senior captain Chanice Sears was dominant out of the middle with her team leading 7 blocks.
The Eagles have their home opener on Tuesday, September 13, versus St. Joe's of Brooklyn.
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