FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- Freshman
Jasmine Williams registered one of the most efficient performances in program history on Saturday afternoon when she helped lead the Christopher Newport volleyball team to a thrilling 3-0 win at Mary Washington (4-8) in the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Invitational. The Captains improved to 12-5 with the bounceback victory, downing the Eagles by a final score of 25-17, 26-24, 28-26.
In the win, Williams etched her name atop the record books with a perfect 12-for-12 performance at the net. The rookie from Stafford returned to the Fredericksburg area for the first time in her career and gave her hometown fans a show with a perfect 1.000 hitting percentage on 12 swings. She becomes only the second player in program history to record a perfect match with at least 10 kills, joining Hall of Famer Dawn Terry who managed the feat twice in her career during the 1986 season. Forty years later, Williams also set the freshman record for hitting percentage in a match, breaking a standard set by Eliza Fisher against UC Santa Cruz on October 3, 2014 (.812).
Williams spread out her record-breaking performance across all three sets with four kills in the first, two more in the second, and six more in the third. Her final kill set up match point on a feed from
Lauren Hobbs to give the Captains a 27-26 advantage in an epic clinching set that CNU pulled out by a score of 28-26.
In addition to the record-breaking performance by the freshman, sophomores
Fielding Croft, with 16, and Hobbs, with 15, each led the way in assists.
Avery Hanly added 11 kills and 7 digs and
Phoebe Adams notched a team-high eight digs.
The first set featured a dominant effort by the Captains as the visiting team pulled away late to capture an eight-point win, 25-17. With the score still close at 18-15, Adams stepped to the line and the CNU attack found its form.
Fielding Croft buried a kill on an assist by
Alli Pratt before back-to-back terminations by
Simara Alexander and Pratt all but put it away. Natalie Brown chipped away at the lead for Mary Washington but Croft set up Hanly for a powerful blow to clinch the set.
The rest of the match was played extremely close with neither team leading by more than five points in the second or third set combined. The back-and-forth battle saw the teams trade leads in the second when the Eagles opened up a 15-10 advantage to force a timeout. Out of the break, the Captains looked calm and collected when the leaned on the veteran core up front with a kill by Alexander and back-to-back bullets by Hanly. The CNU run turned a five-point deficit into a two-point lead with a 10-3 burst after the timeout. From there, the teams teetered between a deadlock and a single point lead until the Captains took advantage of a service error and Williams powered home the second-set winner.
Finally, the competitive bout continued through the third after CNU started with a 10-6 lead. The Eagles responded with a similar run to the aforementioned Captains spurt, re-taking the lead, 14-12, by scoring eight of the next ten points. With the Eagles leading by two, 18-16, the Captains got a key service ace from Croft betwixt kills by Alexander and Pratt to retake the lead. The home team rallied again, though, and opened up a 22-19 edge. Undeterred, the CNU lineup answered back and knotted the score up facing set point. From there, the momentum favored the Captains and Williams' 12th kill put CNU within one of the win and an error by the Eagles closed it out.
CNU hit .345 in the first set, .125 in the second, and .159 in the third to finish out the match hitting .195 overall. The defense held the Eagles to .125 hitting and did not allow a player to reach double figures in kills for the fifth straight match.
Next up for the Captains is a big matchup against nationally-ranked Batten University on Wednesday, October 7. CNU will travel to Virginia Beach to take on the Marlins at 7:00 p.m.
