Volleyball 10/11/2019 8:36:00 PM Scott Harris

Volleyball Heads Up the Eastern Shore to Battle Salisbury, Stockton

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - Christopher Newport Volleyball travels to Salisbury, Md. this weekend to battle Salisbury University on Saturday at 11 a.m. in Capital Athletic Conference action and will follow with a 1 p.m. non-conference contest against Stockton University.

CNU remains one of the hottest teams in D3 volleyball with 13 consecutive wins, the 8th longest win streak in the country. They have lost just three total sets in the win streak. They check-in at 16-6 overall and in first place in the CAC at 4-0. A win over Salisbury would give the Captains a clean sweep of CAC foes through the first round against each team with a rematch on the slate with every team over the next three weeks.

The Captains rank 1st in the CAC in kills (960), kills per set (12.80), hitting percentage (.234), assists (892), assists per set (11.89), service aces (220), service errors (226), aces per set (2.93), and points per set (17.4). Nationally, they rank 22nd in aces per set, 42nd in assists per set, 24th in hitting percentage, 29th in total kills, 26th in total assists, and 3rd in total aces.

Katie Piper and Katie Crofford continue to show that they are two of the premier all-around outside hitters in the CAC if not the nation. Piper checks in with 2.94 kills per set while Crofford sites at 2.71. Additionally, they are respectively averaging 0.46 and 0.55 aces, 2.62 and 2.37 digs, and 0.27 and 0.31 blocks. Piper ranks in the top 10 in the CAC in kills, aces, digs, and points while Crofford is top 10 in kills, aces, and points while also placing 11th in hitting percentage and 12th in digs. Crofford also places 52nd nationally in total aces. Riley Garrison totals 2.46 kills per set on a .344 hitting percentage, good for 56th in D3 and 2nd in the CAC. She also adds on a team-best 0.80 blocks per set, the CAC's 7th-best mark.

Sammy Carroll continues to excel at the setter position with 9.79 assists per set to lead all CAC players while placing 35th nationally and fifth amongst all freshmen. She has also shown abilities in numerous other aspects, including attack (0.51 kills), serving (0.41 aces, 11th CAC), digs (1.93), and blocking (0.30).

Rebecca Frey paces the team in digs at 3.29, 7th in the CAC, while placing third in the league in aces per set at 0.54 and 63rd nationally in total aces at 39. Not far behind is Piper at 2.62 and Crofford at 2.37.

Rounding on the defensive leaders is Garrison, Mackenzie Wright, Abby Oren, and Megan O'Hara on blocking. Garrison checks in at 0.80 while Wright blocks 0.67 attacks per set. Oren averages 0.53 and O'Hara 0.47.

Salisbury is 13-5, 2-2 in the CAC. The SeaGulls started the year 8-0 but are just 5-5 in their last 10 matches. Their conference wins come over York (3-2) and St. Mary's (3-0) while their CAC losses are to Mary Washington (3-1) and Southern Virginia (3-0). The Captains are 4-0 against those four teams, winning by a combined score of 12-1. The Captains and SeaGulls have just one common opponent in non-conference competition in Marymount. CNU played them twice, winning 3-0 and 3-1 while SU came away with a 3-2 victory.

The SeaGulls rank either third or fourth in the CAC in nearly every statistical category, but they shine with their defensive play at the net where they rank second in the league in blocks per set at 2.07, a mark that is good for 19th in the NCAA. A weak spot that the Captains will potentially be able to exploit comes on serves. CNU ranks third nationally in total service aces and 22nd in aces per set while SU ranks next to last in the CAC for reception errors.

The SeaGulls have statistically one of the best outside hitters in the country in Amanda Chew as she ranks 19th in NCAA Division III in points per set (4.65) and 30th in kills per set (3.95), both good for the top spot in the CAC. She also ranks 8th in the league in aces per set (0.47) and 9th in digs per set (2.81). She has 799 total attacks for the year, the second place student-athlete in the CAC has 614. The season-high attack attempts for any CNU player in a match is 43, Chew has matched or exceeded that in 11 of 18 matches.

Chloe Adam is no slouch herself as an outside hitter at 2.56 kills per set, which ranks 8th in the conference. She is also heavily involved with 598 attack attempts, the third most in the league, as the SeaGulls get over half their attack attempts from Chew and Adam.

The SeaGulls have heavily played a trio of setters. Blair Pausic has recently emerged out of the pack as the starter, having played in seven matches with three consecutive starts while receiving the lion's share of reps since becoming the starter. She is averaging 6.40 assists per set but is posting an average of 9.5 since becoming the starter. Claudia Swietzer is averaging 5.72 assists per set but has seen action in just one set since the ascension of Pausic. Kiana Bopp is posting 3.98 assists but has played in only three sets with five total assists in the last three matches.

Bopp leads the team in aces at 0.48 per set for 5th in the CAC while Chew is second at 0.47 for 8th. Hailey Dougherty tops the team and the CAC in digs at 5.30 per set while Chew is second at 2.81.

The SeaGulls have five players averaging at least 0.65 blocks per set, led by Jenna Feinauer's 1.06, which ranks 26th in D3 and 1st in the CAC. She has recorded at least two blocks in all but one match and has 3+ in 15 of 18 matches. Hannah Sullivan ranks 2nd in the league at 0.98 while Carley Cleland, Angelina Casserly, and Caitlyn Edman each average 0.65 a set.

If Christopher Newport gets past Salisbury in the opener, each team will put a 10+ match win streak on the line as CNU has won 13 entering the weekend while the Ospreys have an 11-match streak going. Stockton is 18-2 overall and 4-0 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference. They have one common opponent in Cabrini. CNU defeated the Cavaliers 25-19, 29-27, 25-18 while Stockton beat them twice, once by a score of 25-22, 25-22, 25-19 while dropping a set in the rematch for a 25-23, 25-19, 24-26, 25-23 win.

The Ospreys are one of the most efficient hitting teams in the nation, ranking 23rd in D3 at .235

Sarah Walsh leads the team in kills at 3.17 while hitting .251. Following her up is Charlotte Leon at 2.64 on a .231 hitting percentage. Julie Kohlhoff averages 2.82 kills while posting an NCAA 12th-best .401 hitting percentage. Jocelyn Holobetz records 2.03 kills per set.

Emily Sullivan contributes 9.49 assists per set to rank 48th in D3. Additionally, she averages 1.44 kills per set on a .333 attack percentage and also doles out 0.37 aces per set. Christie Louer tops the team in aces at 0.53 while Sophie Marziello, Emily Sullivan, and Natalie Miller all average between 0.36 and 0.39.

Miller also tops the team in digs with 4.37 followed by Louer at 2.39 and Sullivan at 2.37. Franceska Gustave rejects 0.65 attacks per set while Kohlhoff is close behind at 0.64.

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