The Chestnut Hill College women's volleyball team got back on the winning track Saturday afternoon, surviving a rough start to their match at Caldwell University, rallying to defeat the Cougars 3-1 at CU's Newman Center and earn their first conference win of the season.

The Griffins improve to 3-8 overall and 1-3 in Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference games.  Caldwell falls to 0-13 overall and 0-4 in league play.

The Cougars took advantage of a flat Chestnut Hill squad in the first set, defeating the Griffins 25-15.  By the second set, the Griffins warmed up, tying the match with  25-16 win. Chestnut Hill then battled to win the final two sets 26-24 and 28-26.  The final set saw the Griffins rally from a double-digit deficit to take home the win.

Three players had ten or more kills for the Griffins with Kate Hanley leading the way with 14.  Nicole Dimiris added 11 kills while Maya Hopson had a season-high ten.  Sofia Rodriguez set the offense for Chestnut Hill with 43 assists.

Hanley, Rodriguez and Alex Crespin had two service aces apiece.  Lilian Bandel, Caroline Croteau and Hopson each had one.

On the defensive side, Crespin led all players with 11 digs while Rodriguez had six and Sarah Allen five.  Katelyn Dougherty and Hanley had four digs each. Dimiris led all players with five blocks.  Rodriguez and Hopson had three blocks apiece.

The Cougars jumped out to a 12-5 lead in the opening set and still led 20-13 when they closed out the set on a 5-2 run to take a 1-0 lead in the match with a 25-15 win.

Allen started set two with four straight points off serve and Hopson later added five service points as the Griffins jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the second set. Later in the set, kills from Sadie Bayko and Hanley and an ace from Bandel gave the Griffins a 23-14 lead.  Dimiris and Hopson then added kills to make the final score 25-16 as the Griffins evened the match at 1-1.

Four ties highlighted the early portion of the third set until two aces from Rodriguez gave the Griffins a 13-10 lead.  The Cougars then ran off four straight points to retake the lead before Micah McKenzie tied it again at 14-14 with a kill.  Caldwell added a 6-4 run to lead 20-18 and the Griffins again rallied to retake the lead on 23-22 on Bayko's kill. Two more ties followed before Hanley and Dimiris had back-to-back kills to put the set away 26-24.

Caldwell jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the fourth set and later led by scores of 11-2 and 13-3.  The Griffins clawed their way back to 13-7 before a 6-2 run by the Cougars increased the lead to 20-9.  CHC followed with an incredible comeback  outscoring the Cougars 19-6 the rest of the way.   The Griffins still trailed by seven 24-17 and were facing a set point from the Cougars.  Dimiris netted a kill that started and 8-0 uprising by the Griffins and getting help with two kills from McKenzie  and several attack errors by the Cougars. The 8-0 run put the Griffins on the verge of winning the match with a 25-24 lead. Caldwell followed with two straight points and was again in a position to win the set, leading 26-25.  A Cougar attack error tied the score and Hopson followed with a kill to again give the Griffins match point.  Crespin closed it out with a service ace to win the set, 28-26, and the match 3-1.

For the game the Griffins had 51 kills to Caldwell's 25.  Caldwell held the edge with 11 aces to CHC's nine.  The Griffins, however, gave the cougars 20 points off serving errors while Caldwell committed just seven.   CHC led the way with 35 digs to Caldwell's 26 and both teams had eight team blocks.

The women's volleyball team returns to action on Tuesday, October 7, 2025 when they travel to face Goldey-Beacom College.  Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.