NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Colgate volleyball team picked up two impressive wins over strong Tulsa (3-0) and Little Rock (3-1) teams on the opening day of the Stephen F. Austin Tournament Friday. The Raiders continue their hot start to the season and improve to 7-1 overall, the best start since 1991 when Colgate won its first 12 games.
Junior
Jaelah Hutchison tallied 10 kills against Tulsa to lead the Raiders to their fourth 3-0 sweep of the season. First-year
Alli Lowe was lights out against Little Rock, registering 23 kills and a .435 hitting percentage, as Colgate battled back from dropping the first set to win 3-1.
HOW IT HAPPENED – TULSA
The Raiders got out to a quick 9-4 lead in the opening set, but the Hurricane stormed back to tie the score at 13. Kills from three different Raiders and a pair of service aces from first-year
Bridget Kolsky helped Colgate rattle off an 8-1 run to give the Raiders a 21-14 cushion. Tulsa was able to pull back within three at 24-21, but a kill from junior
Jaelah Hutchison put the set away for the Raiders to secure a 25-21 victory.
Colgate held a narrow 12-10 lead in the second set before kills from three different Raiders and a service ace helped the Raiders stretch their advantage to 16-10. The Raiders continued to cruise to a 24-16 advantage. Tulsa fought off two set points, but a kill from sophomore
Taylor Flaherty followed to give Colgate a 2-0 match lead with a 25-18 set-two victory.
The Raiders jumped out to a quick 7-1 lead in the third set. Tulsa pulled within two at 13-11 before a pair of kills from junior
Amanda Smith capped a 5-1 Colgate streak that gave the Raiders an 18-12 lead. The Hurricane clawed back within three at 23-20, but Colgate put the match away with kills from first-year
Alli Lowe and junior
Katie Stansbury to secure the 25-21 set-three victory and 3-0 match win.
HOW IT HAPPENED – ARKANSAS-LITTLE ROCK
Four-straight Colgate points highlighted by kills from Smith and Hutchison put the Raiders in the lead at 6-5. Smith's kill from a
Lauren Sanderson assist pushed the Raiders in front 14-11. Little Rock then turned the game in its favor with a 9-2 run to take a 20-16 lead. Colgate scrambled back to within 21-20 thanks to kills from
Hannah Cannon and
Taylor Flaherty, but the Raiders never could draw level. The Trojans took the first set, 25-23.
The second set was tight throughout. Kills from Lowe and Stansbury sparked Colgate to an early 4-2 edge and the Raiders led 11-8 after Sanderson's service ace. But Little Rock drew level and the game had its eighth tie at 14-14. Colgate then put together a 5-1 run on three kills from Hutchison and two from Lowe. The Raiders led by 3-5 points the rest of the way and evened up the match, 25-21.
Colgate took control in set three. The Raiders trailed 4-1 early but then stormed in front, scoring eight of nine points for an 11-7 edge. Stansbury and Lowe had a pair of kills apiece during that run. The teams traded points until 17-13 when Colgate closed the game out on an 8-2 surge. Stansbury's kill got the run started, and then she added a service ace. Three kills by Lowe and the closing kill from Smith finished off the Trojans 25-15 for a 2-1 lead.
Colgate saved its best for last. The Raiders again trailed early but then scored four straight for a 5-3 advantage as Smith and Flaherty posted back-to-back kills and
Rachel Meyne followed with a service ace. It was 7-7 when Colgate scored five straight on the strength of two kills from Sanderson and one from Stansbury. The Raiders stretched it to a 9-2 run and led 16-9. It was 18-13 when Colgate scored seven of the last eight points to close the game, 25-14. Colgate improved to 5-1 this season when playing twice in the same day.
BOTTOM LINES
- Colgate 3, Tulsa 0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-21)
- Colgate 3, Little Rock 1 (23-25, 25-21, 25-15, 25-14)
WON-LOST RECORDS
- Colgate improves to 7-1 on the season.
- Tulsa dropped to 4-3 with the loss.
- Little Rock is now 2-5.
KEY RAIDER INFO
- Lowe led the team for the day with 31 kills and a strong .361 hitting percentage.
- Sanderson registered another double-double against Little Rock with 11 digs and 47 assists. She finished the day with 82 assists and 19 digs.
- Stansbury finished the day with 26 kills and 20 digs.
- Hutchison tallied 19 kills, a .395 hitting percentage and five total blocks in the two matches combined.
- Flaherty led the team with eight total blocks in the two games.
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach
Ryan Baker
- "I am once again so proud of our effort and competitive spirit. It's such a good feeling as a coach when you have 16 players who care and compete as hard as they are right now."
- "It was a huge win against a very good Tulsa team. I felt Jaelah, Taylor and Amanda had great matches for us and Lauren made some really good choices. Our defensive intensity ended up being the difference maker in the end."
- "Little Rock was in the Sweet 16 a couple of years ago so you know they are well coached. Today was no different. They were well prepared and took us out of our comfort zone early on. I loved how we responded and battled. Our outside hitters put up big numbers and we were very consistent in our pass game. We got some big help from Hannah and Rachel off the bench. It was a total team effort."
UP NEXT
- Colgate wraps up the Stephen F. Austin tournament against the host Ladyjacks Saturday.
- First serve is set for 2:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. CT.
