Nethersole added 11 kills and helped in key plays in the Hawks win on Sunday. Courtesy of HartfordHawks.com

This weekend the University of Hartford Volleyball Team split their two home matches.

On Friday evening, they dropped a three set match against the University of New Hampshire in the Reich Family Pavilion.

In the opening set, it was a back and forth struggle with four lead changes and 12 ties. But when tied at 12-12, the Hawks went on a 6-1 to gain a substantial lead.

However, after being tied up at 21, the Wildcats took the first set off of a Hawk error and service ace. They would use that same momentum to take the next set as well with a final score of 25-15.

In the final set in the middle a 5-2 run from the opposing team, Sareeta Nethersole stopped them with a kill and sophomore Chandler Goodwin entered the rotation and with Maya Louis had a double block.

Off a timeout at 22-21, the Wildcat’s scored three more straight points to take the match.

On the offense, Nethersole, Louis and Lindsay Anderson finished with 10 kills a piece. Anderson finished with a hitting average of .471, while Louis finished with a .444.

Junior setter, Jackie Tamburri, finished with 35 assists.

On the flip side, Dionna Kirton led the defense finishing with 15 kills, while Nethersole added 11 of her own.

Louis also finished with three block assists, leading the Hawks in that category.

The team was back in action again on Sunday afternoon as they faced off against the UMass Lowell River Hawks and took the match in three sets.

In the opening set, Goodwin had four kills in six attempts, and then with Kirton serving five consecutive points allowed the Hawks to take the first set at a score of 25-19.

In the second set knotted up at a 13-13 tie and the Hawks went on a run taking 10 of the next 12 points making the score 23-15.

Thanks to back-to-back kills from Nethersole and Lindsay Swan the Hawks closed out set with a score of 25- 16.

The final matched ended in a score of 25-13 where though the Hawks were down three points in the beginning with 10-7 the Hawks broke off and went on two runs, one with eight straight points to close out the set and the match.

Head Coach Alex Temkin told The Hartford Sports Network,

“We steamrolled through with good serving that helped us a lot. We scored a lot of points on our serve today.”

The offense was led by Nethersole with 11 kills for the match. Tamburri had a total of 31 assists and also led the Hawks defense with 10 digs.

The Hawks on a whole finished with a hitting average of .303 and UMass Lowell finished at an average of .058.

It’s important to Coach Temkin that the Hawks play at a pace that is consistent with their normal playing, as a coach, on timeouts he motivates and adds excitement to the game by encouraging his players to play at the level they are capable of.

The Hawks, because Binghamton fell to Stony Brook, in the words of Coach Temkin are, “in a traffic jam for fifth place” for the America East Conference.

The University of Hartford Hawks Volleyball Team now has a record of 10-16 overall and in the America East Conference, 4-6.

This week the Hawks hit the road to face their opponents. On Friday they take on the Binghamton Bearcats at 7 p.m. and they’re in action again on Sunday at 2 p.m. against the University of Albany.

The next home game for Hartford will be Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. when they play Stony Brook.