HAMILTON – For the second time in three years, Colgate Volleyball is bringing home another banner as the 2021 Patriot League regular season champion.
Colgate in 2019 claimed a share of the regular season title with American, but the Eagles earned the top seed after winning the tiebreaker. Fast forward to Friday night and perhaps it was fitting for the Raiders to clinch the 2021 title with a dominant 3-0 victory over American.
Colgate will host the Patriot League semifinals and championship Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 19-20, at Cotterell Court. The two semifinal matches will take place Saturday before the championship on Sunday. Match times will be determined at a later date.
The Raiders' three-year dominance continued with their first-ever regular season sweep of American. Over the last three seasons, Colgate's Patriot League record stands at 34-4.
Colgate's strong service game and standout performances at the net paved the way to the Raiders' 10th win in their last 11 tries on Friday. Colgate posted five aces, four from
Libby Overmyer, to go along with a .266 hitting percentage on 38 kills.
Alli Lowe registered a double-double on a team-leading 10 kills and 10 digs. Overmyer added nine kills to go with her four service aces, while
Sophie Thompson was a force at the net finishing with five blocks.
Harper Snyder led the team with a .583 hitting percentage and
Julia Kurowski tallied 26 assists.
Set 1: Colgate 25, American 21
Colgate raced to an early 6-0 lead in the opening set thanks to a pair of service aces by Overmyer and two ball handling errors by the visiting Eagles. Blocks by Snyder and Kurowski helped the Raiders stretch the lead to 11-4, but the momentum would shift. Fueled by a 5-0 run the Eagles tied things up at 14-14 after a service ace by Bridget Javitch. It was tied again at 15s but back-to-back kills by Lowe and Snyder put the Raiders in front for good 17-15. The narrow first set closed out with another kill by Lowe to seal the 25-21 victory.
Set 2: Colgate 25, American 15
The middle set saw three early ties before back-to-back service aces by Overmyer helped the Raiders push across four straight points to build a 12-7 lead. American cut the gap to 13-11 after a 4-0 swing, but Colgate countered with a 7-0 stretch to put it away. Snyder had three kills during the stretch and the Raiders ran away with the second set 25-15.
Set 3: Colgate 25, American 20
Colgate saw itself trailing for the first time all night in the third set when American won a long volley to take a 5-4 lead. The back-and-forth battle saw 12 ties and neither team led by more than two points until the Raiders scored three straight points to put the match away. With the set tied at 19s, a service error by American followed by back-to-back kills by Thompson and Overmyer gave Colgate its largest lead 22-19. Two of Colgate's final three points came on blocks, as Thompson and Overmyer stood tall at the net to cap the 25-20 victory.
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Ryan Baker
"I am so happy for this team. They put in the work all summer and it's paid off. We still have a lot of goals we are wanting to accomplish. I'm excited that this team will be in their gym in front of their fans for the Patriot League tournament. We got better throughout the match tonight against a hot American team. Julia distributed the ball and our hitters were able to gut out some kills. We have a tough match against a scrappy, hard hitting Navy team."
UP NEXT
Colgate caps off the weekend against Navy on Saturday with first serve set for 3 p.m. The Raiders will honor their five seniors prior to the match in a brief pregame ceremony.
