EAGLES CAN’T OVERCOME CHARGERS’ DOWN THE STRETCH

CSE took to the court in match 1 of the NEAC weekend looking to upset last year’s #4 seed, Lancaster Bible College.  The Eagles started off well versus the Chargers, taking a 9-3 lead early behind  an ace by Rachel Hausler and kills from Ireyiah Stevens, Subhana Wrights and Katie Cooper.  LBC responded though with a 6-0 run that knotted the score at 9.

The match became a defensive struggle after that as each team was unable to generate consistent offense due to the blocking and digging of the other team.  With the score tied at 20, the Eagles took advantage of 2 Chargers’ hitting errors and a kill by Subhana Wrights to take a stunning 23-20 lead.  Another Wrights kill after a Chargers’ kill pushed the Eagles closer to a set 1 victory at 24-21 but the Chargers got a kill off the right side and the Eagles followed with 2 hitting errors to see the score get tied again at 24.  An error by the Chargers gave the ball back to CSE for the set but a kill out of the middle tied things up again.  The Eagles could not put the ball away on serve receive and the Chargers took full advantage, hitting for 2 kills in transition and finishing the set with a 27-25 score.

The second set saw the teams trade points early but at 9-9, LBC went on a 5-0 run that saw the lead extend to 14-10. Kills by Katie Cooper and Amy Cooper and an ace by Katie drew CSE closer at 20-17 but Saint Elizabeth was never able to cut into that early 5 point gap sufficiently to change the outcome, a 25-19 set win by LBC.

The 3^rd set had the same start as the previous 2 and the score was knotted at 6 early on.  Lancaster Bible went on a mini 3-0 to extend the lead to 3 at 10-7.  A Kareemah Muhammad kill broke that momentum briefly but the Chargers came back with a 5-2 run to extend the lead to 15-10.  Saint Elizabeth could not find the court with their hits which allowed the Chargers to go on a 5-1 run that put CSE in a 20-11 hole. CSE tried to respond but the lead was too great and the Eagles lost the set and match 25-14.   

The Eagles were led by Subhana Wrights who hit for 11 kills and had 4 blocks.  The Eagles gave up only one ace in large part due to the outstanding passing of Rachel Hausler and Katie Cooper, who were 57/58 in serve receptions.  Amy Cooper and Rachel Hausler led the team with 11 digs each. Eagles drop to 12W-5L.