HAMILTON – Colgate's recent run of dominance took another forward stride Saturday afternoon when the Raiders swept Lehigh 3-0 to clinch their second consecutive Patriot League regular season championship.
Colgate's third regular season title in four years was backed by a 14-2 conference record, the program's third consecutive season with at least 13 Patriot League wins excluding the shortened 2020-21 campaign.
Since 2019, the Raiders are 49-7 against league opponents.
The Raiders improved in every set on Saturday, starting with a .206 hitting percentage and finishing with a .308 clip. Hopefully, that's a sign of things to come for Colgate, which will host the final four of the Patriot League tournament next weekend at Cotterell Court.
Abby Shadwick posted nine kills to lead the Raiders offensively, while
Julia Kurowski finished with 16 assists, five kills, and five digs in the balanced performance.
Gillian Hauschild had seven kills and two blocks,
Harper Snyder posted a team-best .667 hitting percentage, and
Taylor Cigna and
Cami Carfino each registered four service aces in the victory.
Set 1: Colgate 25, Lehigh 19
Back-to-back service aces from Cigna helped Colgate establish an early 6-3 advantage. Shadwick later keyed a 7-1 surge with an ace and a kill to push Colgate in front, 13-6. The Raiders led by as many as nine (19-10) before Lehigh countered with a 4-0 spurt and cut the gap to 22-17. Presence at the net put the first set away after back-to-back kills from Hauschild and
Carlie Rzeszotarski sealed the opening frame, 25-19.
Set 2: Colgate 25, Lehigh 22
Colgate jumped out to a 6-3 lead thanks to kills from Kurowski and
Sophie Thompson. Lehigh trimmed the margin to 14-12, but the Raiders immediately responded with three straight points on errors. Kurowski carried Colgate to a comfortable 24-18 lead before back-to-back aces by Lehigh's Gracie Kiser capped a 4-0 run and trimmed the margin to 24-22. Following a Raider timeout, another kill from Kurowski fittingly clinched the second set for the Raiders, 25-22.
Set 3: Colgate 25, Lehigh 16
Carfino dotted a pair of service aces to set the tone in the third set. The Raiders raced out to a 5-1 lead before Lehigh made its first climb of the frame with a 3-0 spurt to close the gap to 11-10. From there, the Raiders outscored the Mountain Hawks 14-6 highlighted by a pair of aces from Cigna. Kills from Hauschild and Snyder sealed the third set, the sweep, and the regular season championship.
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Ryan Baker
"It's a lot of hard work to win a regular season championship. You have to battle so many things throughout the course of a year and this team has been so tough. I enjoy every day that I get to spend with this team and I'm thrilled to watch them prepare for another weekend of volleyball.
"We played clean volleyball tonight - our passes and serves were really solid all night. Our setters made good choices and our hitters were making the right swings at the right time. Lehigh is one of the best blocking teams in the conference and I loved how our team kept battling.
"This is just another week for us. We have to treat it like every other week. We'll find out Tuesday night who we're playing and we'll go from there."
UP NEXT
The Patriot League six-team tournament bracket will be announced on Sunday. Two quarterfinal matchups take place on Tuesday, while the top two seeds receive a bye. The Raiders will face the lowest remaining seed on Saturday for semifinal action at Cotterell Court.
