Kaylee Fifer with 28 assists led Colgate to a 3-0 win over Bucknell
Tuesday night. (Photo by Bob Cornell)
By Matt Faulkner
(Hamilton, NY – Oct. 22, 2013) After sweeping Bucknell last Friday on the road, Colgate brought the momentum home and took care of the Bison in a 3-0 (25-9, 25-22, 25-10) dominating win on Tuesday night in volleyball action.
Colgate (16-6, 8-1 PL) has now won five-straight matches and swept both contests against the Bison this season without dropping a set. The Raiders only had one player in double-digits in kills and that was Diane Seely with 10. Kaylee Fifer added 28 assists, while Caitlin Cremin had 11 digs. Colgate’s nine points allowed in the opening set was the fewest for an opponent this season.
Rookie Katherine Harris had one of the best service nights of the season for any Raider with four aces and served up runs of 11 and 10 straight points during the match.
“Kathleen was great from the service line and that is one of her strengths in the game,” head coach Ryan Baker said. “She is a finesse player and once she got rolling I thought we had a good chance to win the match.”
Bucknell (8-11, 1-8 PL) continues to struggle in league play and got seven kills each from Kristen Titley and Jordan Walker. Meghan Wentzel had 10 assists for the Bison, who hit .093 during the match with 18 errors on 86 attacks and 26 total kills.
“I didn’t think Bucknell had its best match tonight,” Baker said. “We at least didn’t make errors and if you give teams errors, they can make it a good match. So I am happy we didn’t make too many errors.”
The teams played for the second time in the last five days.
“We made a few adjustments with the way we were going to serve and how our blocking scheme was going to be, which helped a little bit, but we both knew each other tonight,” said Baker.
The Raiders definitely took advantage of the service game tonight and especially Harris in the first set. Colgate jumped out to a 12-1 lead with an 11-0 run with four kills from Seely, including three-straight strikes at one point. That run alone ended Bucknell’s chance at winning the opening set. Colgate increased the lead to 23-5 thanks to a couple of kills from Kenzie Hume and one from Lindsay Young, along with an ace from Hannah Donnelly. After the Bison got a few points back, Mari Faines finished the set with a kill to give Colgate the 25-9 win.
Bucknell came ready to play in the second set and earned its largest lead of the match at 10-7 after a few errors by the Raiders. Colgate regrouped and won the next six points to take back the lead at 13-10. Kate Reilly contributed with a couple of kills to get the lead back. The Raiders then held off a late rally by the Bison as Bucknell scored five-straight points to get to within one at 22-21 with kills by Walker and Erika Eastley. Once again, the Raiders settled down and tallied three of the final four points to win the set, 25-22, to take a 2-0 lead in the match. Harris struck with a pair of knockdowns and Seely added one as well.
The third set was not much of a contest with Colgate getting out to an 11-3 lead after three kills from Harris and two from Young. Bucknell climbed back into the match at 12-8, but with a 15-10 lead, the Raiders ended it quickly with Harris serving the final 10 points to win 25-10 and take home the sweep. The match ended on Harris’ fourth ace of the night and she got help from Seely, who added three kills during the run.
Colgate is back on the floor at Cotterell Court on Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m. as the Raiders take on Lafayette. The team is hosting its annual Dig Pink Game, so stayed tuned to gocolgateraiders.com for an update on how to donate to Breast Cancer Awareness this weekend.