It was a historic night at Sorgenti Arena on the campus of Chestnut Hill College as the Griffins' women's volleyball team hosted their first home Central Atlantic Collegiate conference tournament game in program history. The energy was great, and the crowd was electric, and the Griffins fed off all the enthusiastic fans, earning a 3-0 win over Dominican University to advance to the conference semi-finals.
The win was also historic as it marked the first time the Griffins have won a CACC conference playoff game. Chestnut Hill, the #2 seed from the South Division improved to 14-13 on the season. Dominican, the #3 seed from the north division finished their season at 10-21.
The conference semi-finals and championship matches will be played at Georgian Court University on Saturday and Sunday, November 18-19. The Griffins will face the #1 overall seed the University of Bridgeport at noon on Saturday at the GCU Wellness Center. The winner will face the winner of the Jefferson/Wilmington match on Sunday, November 19 at 12:00 p.m.
The Griffins battled with the Chargers to win the first set 25-23, then caught fire with a 13-0 run to handily win the second set 25-7. Chestnut Hill trailed by five in the third set but rallied to tie before taking the lead for good en route to a 3-0 sweep with a 25-22 win in the third set.
Erika Dubosky led the way for the Griffins, recording her 14
th double-double of the season with a match high 14 kills and a team high 13 digs.
Rachel Mace added nine kills and four service aces. Dubosky added three aces on the night
. Mia Caporellie set the Griffins offense and recorded 30 assists in the match.
On the defensive side, the Griffins' blocking game was solid with five different players recording two or more blocks
. Angela April and
Maya Hopson led the team with four blocks apiece. With her four blocks, April becomes just the third player in program history to record 200 or more career blocks, reaching the 200-block mark early in the third set and adding one more later in the set. Caporellie had three blocks while
Cha'Kya Johnson and Mace had two apiece. Mace and
Torrin Kelley contributed eight digs apiece while Caporellie and
Natalie Albin had five digs each.
The Griffins jumped out to an early 6-2 lead in the opening set with the Chargers battling back to tie up the stanza at 8-8 with their own 6-2 run. The two teams were still deadlocked at 13-13 when the Chargers ran off four straight points to take a 17-13 lead. A Dubosky kill broke the run and she later followed with an ace to pull the Griffins within one 17-16. April added an ace three rallies later to complete a 6-1 run and give Chestnut Hill a 19-18 lead. The chargers rallied to even the score again at 22-22 before the Griffins scored three of the next four points to take the set, taking advantage of two attack errors from the Chargers to win 25-23.
A 9-2 run early in the second set gave the Griffins an 11-5 lead. Following a kill from Dominican's Kaitlyn Carr, Dubosky had two straight kills to start a 13-0 run to take a 24-6 lead. Carr added another kill to break the run which included three aces from Mace, seven errors from the Chargers and a kill from Hopson along with Dubosky's initial two kills. The Chargers had a service error to end the set with the Griffins on top 25-7.
Dominican jumped out to a 9-4 lead in the third set, but the Griffins battled back, producing a 9-3 run of their own capped off with two kills from April and a block from April and Johnson to take a 13-12 lead. Dominican rallied to score five of the next seven points to reclaim the lead 17-14. A service error from the Chargers, two kills from Mace and a DU ball handling error put CHC back on top 18-17. Carr had her final kill of the match (her tenth) to tie the set at 18-18, but three straight points put the Griffins ahead for good, 21-18. Dominican closed within one 23-22 before Dubosky and Johnson ended the match with back-to-back kills.
