EAGLES LOSE HARD FOUGHT 3 SETTER TO BRYN MAWR

The Eagles traveled Saturday to Bryn Athyn College to face the Owls of Bryn Mawr College in a neutral site match that the Eagles had not fared well in for the last 3 seasons.  CSE battled to the end but key plays by the Owls late in each set were the difference in the match that saw the Eagles lose 24-26, 22-25, 23-25.

CSE and Bryn Mawr were locked in a tight duel through most of the first set. Katie Cooper hit a backrow kill to give the Eagles a 6-5 lead early but a kill out of the middle brought the Owls back to a tie.  A kill by Nicole Morera and an ace by Kiana Cunningham opened up an 11-9 lead for the Eagles.

Although the Owls broke serve, the Eagles again responded with a kill by Morera and an ace by Amy Cooper to take the largest lead of the set at 13-9. 

The Owls responded well after a timeout and went on a 9-5 run punctuated by another kill out of the middle that brought them to within 1 at 19-18.  After a switch of serve, a Katie Cooper ace and a Subhana Wrights kill pushed the lead to 22-19.

Bryn Mawr fought back to take the lead at 23-24 off of a number of CSE hitting errors but CSE forced the Owls into a an attack error to tie the score once again.  However, 2 successful attacks by the Owls sealed the set for the Eagles at 24-26.

The second set saw the Eagles go down early 9-2 and continue trailing midway through the set by a   7-13 score.  The Eagles settled into their game and pulled within 2 at 17-19 behind another Wrights’ kill.  The Owls fought back with a 2 quick kills to extend the lead to 17-21 but CSE pulled within 2 again at 20-22 with Wrights pounding out another kill.  CSE ran out of time though as a 3-2 run by the Owls closed the book on set 2 22-25.

The final set saw the teams engage in a tight struggle as the 13-12 CSE lead indicated.  The Eagles fighting to stay alive in the match went on a quick 5-1 run to seemingly take control of the set 18-13 on a blocking error on a Subhana Wrights’ attack.  After a timeout, however, the Owls went on a 6-1 run of their own to take control at 20-19.  A kill by Ireyah Stevens tied up the score at 20 but the Owls hit another couple of kills following an Eagle service error that pushed the Eagles against the wall at 21-24. A kill by Nicole Morera and a free ball error caused by a tough serve by Katie Cooper forced another time-out as CSE were within 1 at 23-24.  But that was as close as the Eagles would get as the Owls got the final kill out of the time out to win the set and match 23-25.

Subhana Wrights led the Eagle offense with 11 kills and an impressive .381 hitting%.  Nicole Morera hit for 9 kills as well while teammate and Captain Kareemah Muhammad led the team with 3 aces and chippied in 4 kills.  Katie Cooper held the team defensively with a team high 18 digs.