CARLISLE, PA (October 22, 2022) – After falling in their first match of the weekend road trip on Friday night against Eastern University, the Susquehanna volleyball team took on two more matches on Saturday afternoon, first facing off with Swarthmore College at 2 pm, then taking on Dickinson College at 4 pm, who served as the hosts for the day's matches. The River Hawks would fall to Swarthmore 3-0, with set scores of 19-25, 19-25, and 16-25. They rebounded in their second match of the day to take a 3-0 win over Dickinson with set scores of 26-24, 25-14, and 25-16.
Match 1: Swarthmore 3, Susquehanna 0
The River Hawks worked to hang close with the Garnet throughout the match but were met with a highly efficient attack from Swarthmore that kept SU on their heels throughout the match. Anytime Susquehanna was able to pull the score within a close margin, it seemed to trigger a run from Swarthmore, who ran off a six-point run to reach set point in the first set and then a five-point run to clinch the match in the third set.
Anytime the River Hawks were able to find an uptick in their play, it just seemed to be matched by the Garnet, as was the case in the second set when SU had their match-high of 12 kills and a .250 team hitting percentage but saw Swarthmore tally 14 kills and a .343 percentage to stay just beyond reach.
Rosina Esposito led SU with 11 kills and a .265 hitting percentage, adding an assist, a block assist, and six digs. Emily Kowalski was the next highest points total, adding eight kills on a .138 percentage and a block assist. Kody Dillon led in blocks with a solo block and two block assists, while Keira Roach had 24 assists to top the team.
Match 2: Susquehanna 3, Dickinson 0
While the first match would see Susquehanna chasing their opponents, they would take the dominant role in their match against the Red Devils. While the first set was a back-and-forth affair that required an extra point for SU to get the two-point margin of victory, from there their hitting jumped from .089 in the first set to .233 in the second and the team having control of the flow of the match, pulling off an impressive seven-point run in the heart of the second set propelled by kills from Esposito, Dillon, and Ryan Rorls, who would be the high watermark for kills in the second match with 10.
With the 2-0 set lead, it was all academic for the River Hawks as they saw out the final set, jumping out to an early lead with a five-point run and never looking back. They would lead by as many as 10 points in the third set.
Some different faces took prominent roles in the match, as first-year Megan Currie stepped in as the setter and tallied 24 assists, also adding two service aces, a solo block, a block assist, and six digs. Senior Faith Shaffer and first-year Jessica Sack combined to provide a stalwart defense, tallying 16 and 15 digs, respectively. Along with her team-leading 10 kills, Rorls also topped the team with three service aces. Amanda Gore would take the lead on blocks, with a solo block and two block assists on her ledger. Kody Dillon also had a nice performance, adding eight kills on a stellar .533 hitting percentage, along with two service aces, a block assist, and two digs.
Having now concluded their non-conference play for the regular season, SU will see their final three matches pit them against Landmark opponents. They'll begin with their final away match, traveling to Scranton on Tuesday the 25th for a 7 pm start time and a match that could go a long way to determining who claims the second seed in the conference. They will then wrap up the regular season with two matches at home as they host a season finale quad-match. They'll take on Goucher College at 11 am while also celebrating Senior Day, before returning to the court at 6:30 pm to face Elizabethtown College for their season finale.
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--RIVER HAWKS--
