Fifer Adds Career-High 63 Assists; Five Hit Double-Digit Kills
(New Haven, Conn. – Sept. 6, 2013) Led by Kaylee Fifer, the Colgate women’s volleyball team was on the winning end of its first five-set match this season with a 3-2 win (21-25, 25-14, 25-19, 19-25, 15-10) over Seton Hall.
Colgate (4-0) remained undefeated thanks to Fifer’s career-high 63 helpers as well as Diane Seely’s 17 kills, while Kathleen Harris had 16 strikes. Lindsay Young chipped in with 13 kills and in total five players reached 10 or more kills. Fifer also added 16 digs and Caitlin Cremin posted a match-high 24 digs.
“It is always a great battle between these two schools,” head coach Ryan Baker said. “I am happy for the team as they deserved to win. We started off very slow, but we hung in there.”
Seton Hall (1-3) had an early 1-0 lead in the match and did come back with a fourth set win, but the Raiders claimed the fifth set. Amanda Hansen tied with Seely for the match-high in kills with 17. Shelbey Manthorpe had 39 assists and a team-high 22 digs.
The first set opened with a quick 3-0 lead for the Pirates, but Colgate was able to fight back to tie the match at 5-5 with Seely recording a kill and Cremin firing an ace. The teams went back-and-forth which led to a 9-9 tie after 18 points, but Seton Hall attacked with four-straight points and had a 13-9 lead thanks to a pair of kills from Amanda Hansen. That small run of four points turned out to be the difference in the set as the Pirates never allowed the Raiders to within three points and won the opening game, 25-21.
Colgate woke up in the second set, winning easily with 25-14 victory. The teams started the set by trading points, but a 5-1 run gave Colgate a 12-9 advantage with Seely and Harris leading the way with kills. The Pirates got back to within one at 14-13, but the Raiders fired back with a run of 10-straight points to build a 24-13 lead. Kenzie Hume and Young each had three strikes, while Katie Reilly had a pair of kills during the run.
In the third set, the Raiders continued its run and had a 12-9 lead early on with three kills to Seely and two from Hume. The Raiders built the advantage up to 16-12 with back-to-back kills from Harris. Colgate then went on another run to finish off the third set by winning 25-19. The Raiders scored six of the seven points down the stretch with kills by Young and Seely, while Allie Dyer recorded a service ace.
Seton Hall came alive in the fourth set and with the help of an 8-1 run, the Pirates had a 12-5 lead. Colgate got back in the match thanks to multiple Seton Hall errors that cut the advantage to 17-14. That was as close as Colgate got as Seton Hall closed out the set with a 25-19 win, setting up a deciding fifth set.
The final set was once again back-and-forth early on, but Colgate broke it open and took a 10-6 lead with Harris leading the way with three kills. The Raiders had no problem from there and came through with the win at 15-10 and took the match.
“The difference was our defensive specialists,” Baker added. “Cremin, Dyer and Lexi Finger were a gritty bunch tonight and got better with every point.”
Colgate was back in action Sept. 7 taking on Yale.