ASHLAND, Va. -- Running their overall win streak to six with a 3-0 win at Randolph-Macon College on Wednesday night, the Christopher Newport volleyball team improved to 4-1 as the road team this season. The Captains won the match 25-20, 25-12, 25-21 as the team hit over .400 combined for the third time this season.
CNU matched their season low with only eight attack errors in the matchup while recording 36 kills on 69 total attempts.
Carley Coghill led all players with eight kills and hit an incredibly efficient .700 in the match.
Madison Rogers added seven while
Emmy Carpenedo notched six kills for the Captains in the win.
The first set was back and forth as neither team led by more than three points until the Captains opened up a 21-16 edge late with a 3-0 run. Carpenedo induced an error on serve and
Avery Hanly obliterated a pass from from Carpenedo into the hardwood to open up the biggest lead of the set. Macon trimmed the lead back to three, but CNU managed to pull off the first set victory by five, 25-20.
With the momentum from the first set victory, the Captains pulled away quickly in the second.
Phoebe Adams had the service duties for the Captains and the veteran took six in a row as the Captains opened up a 9-3 advantage. Adams had one ace and
Alli Pratt had one kill in the run while
Lauren Hobbs also added an ace early.
A small run by the home team trimmed the lead to three, but that would be as close as the Yellow Jackets would get as Christopher Newport held off the comeback with a dominating finish. Not leaning on Macon mistakes, the Captains scored the last seven points of the second set with five kills and an ace to put an emphatic stamp on the win, 25-12. Pratt started the run and was followed by a whistling serve out of the hands of
Lauren Hobbs. Hanly notched two kills on the next three serves before Coghill and
Jasmine Williams finished it out.
Taking a commanding 2-0 lead in the match, the Captains endured a battle from Randolph-Macon in the third but ultimately closed out the win with a 25-21 win. The big run came late again as CNU scored five of the last seven points to clinch the victory.
Madison Rogers and Hanly had kills in the run and the match was won with Hobbs dropping in her third ace of the night.
Hobbs had a strong overall performance with 10 assists, 8 digs, and 3 aces.
Maddie Hanes, the reigning C2C Defensive Player of the Week, protected the floor for the Captains with 12 digs.
Fielding Croft added 15 assists and six digs, extending her streak of double-digit assists to 49 consecutive matches.
Christopher Newport hit .350 in the first set, .474 in the second, and closed out the win by hitting .400 in the third. It marks the second time this season that CNU has registered a match hitting .350 or better in every set after also accomplishing the feat against Centenary (N.J.) on September 12.
The Captains have played well away from home this season with a 4-1 record as true visitors and 5-1 in neutral floor action. CNU has won six in a row and improved to 11-4 overall this season. Randolph-Macon is now 6-7 on the season.
Back in action this weekend at the Coast-To-Coast Invitational, the Captains will take on UC Santa Cruz on Friday, October 2 at 7:00 p.m. before facing off against host Mary Washington at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 3.
