The final home contests of 2021 resulted in a pair of wins for New York University's Women's Volleyball Team as the Violets hosted the Catholic University of America, Montclair State University and Stevens Institute of Technology for the NYU Invitational on Saturday, October 23, at the Brooklyn Athletic Facility.
After defeating Montclair State last night, the
#13-ranked Violets downed Catholic and Stevens this afternoon, both in straight sets, to improve their record to 20-1 as the regular season winds down.
"The team sacrificed a lot and made sure they were on top of their academics during the week," Head Coach
Andrew Brown said of the Violets' preparation during midterms this week. "Everybody really contributed to how well the team performed in a hard time of the year. They're students first and athletes second, but they showed the ability to balance both very, very well."
NYU vs. Catholic (25-12, 25-16, 25-15)
Following an early 4-3 deficit, New York never trailed and raced out to a 25-12 win in the first set. The Violets hit .522 (13 kills) in the first while holding Catholic (5-23) to a .000 hitting percentage and just five kills to take control of the match.
The Cardinals took a quick 4-1 edge in the second. Still trailing 6-4, the Violets used a 7-1 run to pull ahead by four points (11-7). Catholic came within one point four other times through the remainder of the set, but NYU scored the final five points of the frame for a 25-16 victory.
New York carried its momentum into the third, going up 12-6 after back-to-back kills from
Haley Holz (Palatine, IL/Palatine). A few points later
Becca Evans (Atlanta, GA/Chamblee Charter) delivered two-straight service aces to extended the Violets' advantage to 18-10. They didn't look back as Holz scored three of the match's final four points to secure victory.
Holz paced the offense with 13 kills (.500) while
Abby Ausmus (San Diego, CA/La Jolla Country Day School) added 10 (.500, four blocks) and
Ella Weider (Los Gatos, CA/Los Gatos) and
Olivia Lewandowski (San Diego, CA/Del Norte) chipped in seven apiece.
Nicole Dao (Bethesda, MD/The Academy of Holy Cross) delivered a match-high 19 assists,
Zephyr Ning (San Jose, CA/The Harker School) dished out 15 and
Lindsey Hirano (South Pasadena, CA/South Pasadena) brought up a match-high 17 digs.
"The team took care of business," said Brown. "They were very methodical with playing our style of volleyball and it showed out there."
NYU vs. Stevens (25-12, 25-18, 25-12)
The Violets opened the match with a pair of service aces from Dao and led 7-1 after another powerful Holz serve. Stevens (22-4) used five unanswered points in the middle of the first to pull within 12-8, but NYU responded with a 6-1 spurt to take control, 18-9, and held on from there.
Set two was closer, with NYU establishing an early lead that didn't last as the Ducks cut the deficit to two (15-13) after a Parker Adkins kill. Back-and-forth play continued with Stevens hanging tough and trailing 18-16 late. The Violets quickly reclaimed the momentum, however, finishing the frame on a 7-2 run capped off by an Ausmus kill that put them ahead 2-0 in sets.
Taylor Odum (Houston, TX/Memorial) put down a kill to push NYU ahead 8-2 in the third as the hosts readied for another sweep. Stevens scored three-straight, cutting the score to 8-5. But, it was the closest they would come as the Violets hit .379 in the set with 15 kills to run away with a 25-12 victory and claim their 20th win of 2021.
Holz and Ausmus (five blocks) once again led the group with nine kills each and Lewandowski continued her strong play with seven kills and a block.
Dao (15) and Ning (14) combined for 29 assists and Hirano posted 11 digs to lead the defense.
"We know we have another tough weekend of non-conference matchups coming up and we loved the support this weekend. It was amazing to finally have a crowd, especially students supporting students," Brown added.
Next Up
The Violets travel upstate to face off with Vassar College on Friday, October 29, at 4:30 pm in Poughkeepsie, NY.
