The Pirates (18-8, 6-7) swept DePaul (8-18, 3-10) at home on Sunday in its last home match of the season. Seton Hall was forced to say goodbye to six members of its volleyball family when five players and manager Chris Weathers took part in their last match at Walsh Gymnasium.
Seniors Morgan DeVries, Kalie Marshall, Olivia Trudeau, Hannah Hugeback and Kelly Palma took part in a post-game ceremony honoring their careers at Seton Hall. DeVries describes her Senior Day experience as one she will never forget.
"It's surreal," DeVries said. "I can't believe this is all happening. We've gone through so much with this team and it's great to have such a supportive team and family."
Head coach Allison Yaeger said she was happy with the careers of all five seniors.
"We're going to miss them so much," Yaeger said. "I have coached them for a very long time and I actually recruited every single one of them so for me it's extra hard. We've been through a lot with this group."
In the first set, the Pirates jumped out to an early 8-2 lead and did not look back. A big kill by sophomore Stacey Manthorpe widened the gap and gave the Pirates a 13-5 lead. The Hall continued to control the set and eventually got the winning kill from DeVries.
The Pirates continued to be dominant in the second set grabbing an early lead which became as large as 16 points. An ace by Trudeau gave the Hall a 13-2 lead and a Manthorpe kill gave them a 22-6 lead. Manthorpe's sixth kill of the set gave the Pirates a 25-12 win.
In the early part of the third set the two teams traded mistakes and kept the score close, but it seemed the Pirates would start to pull away again when another Stacey Manthorpe kill made the score 6-3. Seton Hall could not quite escape the Blue Demons, who tied the score at nine and eventually took a 14-13 lead.
DePaul scored two more points before the Pirates were forced to take a time out, finding themselves down three points. Following the time out Seton Hall began to make a comeback and an ace by Palma left DePaul with just a one point lead.
In DePaul's last game, they were able to overcome a two set deficit and beat Rutgers in five sets. Coach Yaeger knew never to take the pressure off the Demons.
"Nobody stops fighting in the conference," Yaeger said. "Not the best team in the league, not the worst team in the league."
The Pirates retained focus and then went on a 6-1 run and closed out the set 26-24 with the match winner coming from a kill by Manthorpe.
Seton Hall has only two games remaining in the regular season before the Big East Championship in Marquette. The first is on Friday in Pittsburgh and the last on Sunday in Syracuse. The Pirates are currently tied for sixth place in the conference.
Gerard Gilberto can be reached at Gerard.Gilberto@student.shu.edu.
