BUENA VISTA, Va. -- The fourth-ranked Christopher Newport volleyball team opened up Capital Athletic Conference action on Tuesday evening with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-12, 25-15) victory over Southern Virginia at the Knight Sports Arena.
Briana Sutton, who was honored as the AVCA National Player of the Week earlier in the day, continued her remarkable run with her third double-double since last Friday. Against the Knights, she collected 11 kills and 10 digs to go along with three blocks. Meanwhile,
Abby McIntyre contributed a team-high 17 digs and roped seven kills.
Also helping out on both sides of the ball,
Hannah Miller added nine kills and a pair of blocks, while
Ashley Rock came through with four rejections.
Rachel Close and
Evelyn Harper chipped in with nine digs as well, and
Rachel Conway handed out 27 assists.
With the victory, Christopher Newport improves to 15-2 on the season, including 1-0 in CAC action. The setback drops Southern Virginia to 4-12 overall and 0-1 in league play.
Facing a program that finished second in the conference last year, the Captains found themselves in a tight battle early on. Although Sutton tapped a shot off the block and McIntyre smacked a back-row kill, the visitors fell behind, 6-4. Looking for a spark, Miller provided exactly that as she punched three kills and teamed with McIntyre on a block to quell SVU's early push and grab a 13-10 lead.
Later, after Rock added a block and blast on two straight rallies, Close made a great save off a tough SVU attack before Harper helped flip it into a free ball to keep the rally alive, which led to a Knight miscue and a 19-14 CNU lead. With more than enough breathing room, Conway landed a quick dump, Rock tipped a kill, and Sutton added two bullets to help secure set-point before McIntyre ripped a rocket off the block to clinch the first frame, 25-21.
In the second stanza, the Knights took an early lead again before the Captains came storming back. Sutton led the resurgence as she showed off her full arsenal in the early going. The junior skied above the net to put down an overpass before abusing the block with a dart. Shortly thereafter, she landed a back-row floater into the heart of the SVU defense to help nail down a 10-7 advantage.
Hoping for a bigger lead, McIntyre had a strong run on back-to-back rallies as she slammed a blast before adding a teardrop serve, which got the Knights' defense off-balance and eventually led to a quick kill by Miller. Following a block and kill by Sutton,
Maddie McCann added a solid exclamation point to help wrap up the set. The third-year standout took a feed from Conway and obliterated the ball, slamming a shot that ricocheted off a defender before hitting the Southern Virginia water coolers along the far wall, which helped close out the second set, 25-12.
After battling back from brief deficits in the first two frames, the Captains got off on the right foot in the third. Conway led the early run as she fisted a kill to the corner before hammering another shot backwards through a block attempt to take a 4-1 edge. Later, during a solid mid-set surge, Sutton unloaded a bullet off a back-row attack before McIntyre made a heads-up play. With the Captains out of system, she sent a well-placed free ball over the net that got the entire SVU defense going one way before Miller put down an overpass in the opposite direction after finding nothing but open spaces to lock up a 13-8 lead.
Needing one final push to close out the frame, CNU flashed some defense to put the game out-of-reach. Sutton contributed a pair of late blocks before McCann and
Tessa Klimaitis closed down the right pin with another rejection to take a 22-12 lead. Sutton and
Josie Lucernoni also kept a rally alive with a pair of diving digs, while McIntyre converted another tough save by Sutton into a kill, which forced a Southern Virginia timeout at 23-12.
Following the break, Christopher Newport turned back to its offense. Klimaitis earned match-point with a thunderous kill before McCann added the final nail after driving a shot right through a blocker to clinch the third, 25-15.
As a team, CNU finished the match with a .286 hitting percentage and limited the Knights to an .044 mark. Seven Captains registered at least one block during the contest, while six chipped in with at least five digs.
Christopher Newport will now take a short break before returning to action next Wednesday with a 7 p.m. contest against Salisbury at the Freeman Center.
---CNU---
