NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Sophomore setter
Lauren Hobbs logged a career-high 16 digs and added 18 assists for her second straight double-double and junior
Avery Hanly added one of her own with 13 kills and 13 digs to help lead the Christopher Newport volleyball team to a 3-1 win at home against Salisbury University (14-8) on Friday night.
The Captains improved to 19-7 overall with the victory and earned a regular season sweep of the Sea Gulls for the first time since 2019. Christopher Newport dropped the first set but bounced back in front of a home crowd of over 600 on the holiday weekend for a 23-25, 25-21, 25-22, 25-18 win.
Hanly led all Captains with 13 kills while senior
Simara Alexander added 11 kills on 17 swings without an error for a .647 hitting percentage in the win. The rest of the offense was balanced with rookie
Jasmine Williams and senior
Alli Pratt each adding six kills while
Samantha Dorn and
Carley Coghill each blistered five. Sophomore
Madison Rogers came on strong with four kills and four digs off the bench for the Captains.
As a team, Christopher Newport hit .238 and held Salisbury to .114 over the course of the four-set win. The Captains piled up 9.0 blocks including seven solo stops with six different players picking up at least one rejection.
In the first set, Christopher Newport won three straight points but things started to look dire for the Captains after a 10-1 run handed the visitors a five-point lead. CNU would not allow the match to slip away, however, and clawed all the way back to take the lead again, 16-14. The rest of the opening set was back and forth until Salisbury closed it out for a 25-23 win.
Undeterred by the opening set loss, the Captains quickly rebounded in the second set and put together a dominating run to open up a 12-point lead, 20-8. The teams traded points until the Captains were closing in on set point with a 22-10 advantage. Things got a little dicey as Salisbury scored seven straight points while facing set point, but the home team finally evened the match at one set apiece when Hobbs set up Hanly for the set-clinching kill and a 25-21 win.
Each team had its runs in the third set but it was Christopher Newport who took control late to shift momentum back in thir favor. Trailing by one, 18-17, the Captains scored six of the next eight points to take a 23-20 lead. Dorn had two kills while Rogers and Pratt each added one. After a timeout, the Sea Gulls trimmed the lead back to two, but a ball into the net put CNU in position for set point again. On the ensuing rally, Alexander and Hanly closed out the set with a mammoth block on the left side to pick up the third set, 25-22.
The Captains would clinch the match in the fourth as the defense shined throughout. Early in the set, a scramble by the CNU defense led to an exciting point on an error by the Salisbury attack. The Sea Gulls service just nicked the tape and created an adrenaline-fueled rally for the Captains; first it was
Maddie Hanes with a diving pancake to keep it alive and Alexander reacted quickly to get the ball back in the air for a third hit over by Hanly. On the next attack by Salisbury, Hobbs had to make a one-handed diving save out of bounds after the ball ricocheted off Alexander's block attempt. The Captains kept the point alive with another one-handed dig by Hobbs but the ball sailed toward the CNU bench and Dorn had to race over and launch a back-to-the-net one-handed prayer from a challenging angle as she tumbled onto the scorer's table. Salisbury tried to take advantage, but the attack attempt ended up in the net and CNU won the hard-fought point.
The next friendly bounce came on an attack by Hanly as her swing was slowed by the top of the net and caught Salisbury with their backs turned for the point. The Sea Gulls hung around in the early stages before a 5-0 run allowed the Captains some breathing room for a 16-11 advantage in the clinching set. Coghill and Hanly had kills in the mini--run as CNU started to pull away. With the end in sight, Hobbs and Dorn each picked up aces while Pratt, Alexander, and Hanly added kills as CNU took a 22-16 lead. Finishing out the set, Hanly went to the service line to cap her well-rounded performance and picked up set point on a kill by Alexander -- the senior smashed through a block attempt for the point -- and clinched the match with an ace at the line.
Fielding Croft had a team-high 24 assists in addition to Hobbs' 18 to facilitate the CNU offense during the victory. It was Croft's 60th consecutive match with at least ten assists -- all 60 appearances in her young career. In other milestones,
Simara Alexander eclipsed 500 career kills in the outing and Dorn played in her 400th career set.
The Captains return to action on Saturday, October 31 at 2:00 p.m. against Washington and Lee University. The Generals will also face off against Salisbury in the day's first action at 11:00 a.m.
