LEWISBURG, Pa. (9/2/8/07)—Colgate University junior Katrina Zawojski (Palo Alto, Calif.) registered a match-high 20 kills, hit a match-best .447, and picked up six digs and four blocks to lead the Raiders to a 3-1 victory over Patriot League volleyball rival Bucknell University this evening. The Raiders stopped the Bison, 30-28, 23-30, 30-24, 30-19 in a thrilling four-game match.

 

The Raiders improve to 8-7 overall and 3-0 in the Patriot League, while Bucknell falls to 8-9 on the season and 2-1 in league play. This is the first time Colgate has started the Patriot League 3-0 since the 1996 season and the win also marks the first on Bucknell’s floor since the 1999 season.

 

Junior Merryl Pohl (Seattle, Wash.) added 13 kills, while senior Erin Kanetzke (Cincinnati, Ohio) had seven, including the match-winning kill down the middle. Sophomore Meghan Fanta (Hillsboro, Wis.) handed out a 48 assists and had seven digs. Junior libero Jackie Adlam (Mill Valley, Calif.) led the defense with a match-high 23 digs, while freshman Devon Applegate (Davidson, N.C.) had eight. Freshman Casey Ritt (Colorado Springs, Colo.) made four blocks to go along with her six kills. As a team, Colgate hit .262 and finished with 57 kills.

 

Bucknell had four players with double-digit kills with Jenna Henderson leading the way with 16. Heidi Kamp contributed 15 more and Emilie Hardinge and Kaitlin Segal both had 10. Shannon Pitsch paced the offense with 48 assists to go along with her 12 digs. Jennifer Rupp led the back row defense with 17 digs. Segal anchored the blocking corps with three blocks. Overall, Bucknell hit .142 for the match with 62 kills.

 

Game one was a tight affair as neither team led by more than five points. Trailing 11-7, the Raiders capitalized on a service error and scored six unanswered points to go ahead 13-11. Sophomore Kelsea Loveless (Lubbock, Texas) served in four aces during the 6-0 run. Colgate continued to build on the lead, going ahead 17-13 before Bucknell battled back to make it a 20-19 contest. The Raiders used a 5-1 run to take the largest lead of the game at 25-20, but the Bison wouldn’t let go as they cut the lead to 29-28. Zawojski clinched the game with a kill down the line, her sixth of the game.

 

Bucknell came out firing in the second game, using a 10-5 run to break open the contest at 23-15. The Raiders were able to cut the lead to three points, 23-20, but the Bison responded with a 7-3 to tie the match at one apiece. Colgate’s hit just .083 in the second game after hitting .220 in the first.

 

Games three and four were all Colgate as the Raiders built big leads midway through the games. In the third game, Colgate jumped out to an 11-5 lead and never looked back, cruising to the 30-24 victory. The Raiders hit an impressive .412 in that game and held Bucknell to just .200.

 

The fourth and final game proved to be almost identical. Colgate raced out to a 5-0 advantage and built that to 17-10 lead. The Bison tried to cut into the lead but could never get any closer than six points. The Raider defense was stellar in the final game as Colgate held the Bucknell offense to a .000 hitting percentage. Colgate made just three errors in that game, hitting .367.

 

The Raiders take a break from conference play on Oct. 2, hosting Binghamton on Cotterell Court at 7 p.m.