The Seton Hall women's volleyball team ended their run at the Redbird Classic in Normal, Ill. on Saturday by splitting a doubleheader against hosts Illinois State University and the University of Dayton. The Pirates were victorious in their afternoon match against Illinois State; however, they could not overcome Dayton an hour later.
In their match against Illinois State, the Pirates got off to an unusually slow start. In the first set, they produced more errors than kills and dropped the set 25-17.
Despite this, the team was able to come back and produce a strong second set. This time around, the team managed to have only two errors while accumulating ten kills. The set ended 25-21 in favor of the Pirates.
Continuing the back-and-forth affair, Illinois State took the third set 25-17. Seton Hall put up an impressive success rate for kills at 34%, however, it was no match for Illinois State, who put up almost 45% in that category for the set.
In a pivotal fourth set, the Pirates were once again able to claw their way to get even with the Redbirds. The set was gridlocked multiple times, including at 24-24 at one point, however, Seton Hall capped off the come from behind victory, prevailing 26-24.
The fifth and decisive set went to Seton Hall by the score of 17-15. This set, much like the fourth set, was tied multiple times until Seton Hall gained the edge and, ultimately, the match victory.
For the entire match, Seton Hall's Abby Thelen led the way for both teams with 22 kills. Thelen’s strikes had a 27% success rate on the day.
In terms of other Seton Hall leaders, Miranda Higginbotham had 19 digs, while Haylee Gasser and Amanda Rachwal ended with six blocks each.
Moving to the second match of the doubleheader, Seton Hall took on the University of Dayton and was not as successful as they were earlier in the afternoon.
Perhaps tired from the battle in the game prior, Seton Hall fell in the first two sets of the match, 25-18 and 25-14.
In a crucial third set for the Pirates, the team fought hard but still fell to the Flyers 25-17.
Abby Thelen yet again led the way for the Pirates with 11 kills.
The Pirates will head back home from Illinois having taking two of three, with their next game in the friendly confines of Walsh Gym on Tuesday, Sep. 12 against and prepare to face Hofstra University on Tuesday, Sep. 12.
Kevin Kopf can be reached at Kevin.Kopf@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @KMKTNF
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