WAYNE, N.J. -- The nationally-ranked Christopher Newport volleyball team was firing on all cylinders in the weekend finale at William Paterson University on Saturday as the Captains rolled to a 3-0 win over Centenary (NJ). CNU captured a 25-19, 25-11, 25-21 win after hitting a season-high .402 with 41 kills while adding a season-high 14 aces in the match.
The 14 aces represent the most in a single match since dropping in 18 points off serve against Ramapo on November 16, 2023 in the NCAA Tournament. It's the most in a three-set match since the 2023 Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Championship win over UC Santa Cruz one match earlier on November 11, 2023. Leading the impressive effort from the line was sophomore
Emmy Carpenedo with four while senior
Maddie Hanes added three aces.
Fielding Croft,
Lauren Hobbs, and
Avery Hanly each had two aces apiece while
Simara Alexander notched one to round out the team effort from the stripe. Hobbs and Croft combined for 37 assists with Hobbs picking up 20 of them while Hanly added a well-rounded day with eight digs and four kills.
With the win, Christopher Newport improves to 4-3 on the season while Centenary drops to 1-2 overall.
A late rally in the first-set helped propel the Captains to a 25-19 win and the momentum carried into the second where Christopher Newport blitzed by its Saturday morning opponent with a 25-11 set. In total, the Captains won 35 of 47 points after falling behind by two, 18-16, in the first set.
Jasmine Williams and Carpenedo kicked off the torrid spurt with a block and Williams added a kill to trigger a seven-point run to win the first.
In the second set, the Captains turned a 6-5 lead into an insurmountable 22-9 advantage. Hanes dropped in a pair of aces to sandwich an
Alli Pratt kill before Alexander and
Carley Coghill went back-to-back to make it 14-7. Leading by seven, the Captains closed the second on an 11-3 run to slam the door on any potential comeback by Centenary.
Starting the third, Hobbs connected with Carpenedo for three kills in the first four points. Centenary rebounded to draw even, but another late surge by CNU wrapped up the win. With the score knotted at 15-all, Christopher Newport scored three straight points on a Coghill kill, an ace by
Fielding Croft, and an error by the opponent. Despite Centenary clawing back to within one, 20-19, another four-point run with Hobbs at the service line all but wrapped it up. Carpened and Coghill had kills while Hobbs connected on two aces to set up match point.
As a team, the Captains recorded just eight attack errors in the match on 82 swings for a .402 hitting percentage.
Simara Alexander led the team with 10 kills and a .562 average while Coghill notched nine kills while hitting .533.
CNU returns to action next weekend at the East Texas Baptist Tiger Invite. The Captains will first play McMurry University at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, Septemnber 18 before taking on the No. 4-ranked host Tigers at 4:30 p.m. The trip will culminate in a matchup against Hendrix at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 19.
