Ronald Hanaki
Contributing Writer
ESU Women’s Volleyball swept its Tri-Match against Holy Family, Saint Anselm and Jefferson in all of their sets to go a perfect 3-0 in three matches last Friday and Saturday.
ESU extended their winning streak to seven games. The Warriors now have a win-loss record of 9-2 before starting conference play against Kutztown this Friday night.
ESU downed Holy Family 25-19, 25-11 and 25-13 in last Friday night’s match. Overall, ESU had 10 more kills and committed 10 less errors than Holy Family. Junior Anna Coulter had 9 kills and 7 blocks to lead the offense against Holy Family. Senior Taylor Haan had 28 assists to complement ESU’s offense.
Head Coach Tricia Melfy talked about the importance of having their two program standouts return to this season’s team after the game. Haan and Coulter are the veterans who will help lead and mentor an otherwise young squad.
“We are young and experienced all in one. You could see that we have our setter [Haan] back. Number eight [Coulter] is back. But having Taylor Haan back, our setter, and eight in the middle–that leadership is huge,” Melfy said.
Graduate student Leonor Chambel is the team’s new libero this year. Chambel hails from Portugal, and this is her second season on the team. Chambel had 11 digs against Holy Family to lead ESU’s defense.
“We lost our libero [from last year.] And our libero that we have [this season] played last year–not that much because we had that other libero–but her name is Leo. Leo has been phenomenal for us. So she filled in really well there,” Melfy said.
In general, Melfy was pleased with her team’s performance against Holy Family.
“I just think we served well. We limited our mistakes. Sometimes, we shoot ourselves in the foot. You just shank a ball or miss your serve. But we played a clean game. We played aggressive and took Holy Family out of it really,” Melfy said.
Melfy had her team stick around after their match to watch Saint Anselm and Jefferson play the final game of last Friday night.
“Saint Anselm is a great team. Jefferson is a great team. So we are going to watch them right now and get some scouting done. But it will be pretty competitive [against them.] We are excited. We will be back for a noon match against Saint Anselm,” Melfy said.
The Warriors returned to the court last Saturday to beat Saint Anselm and Jefferson in three straight sets respectively. Set scores against Saint Anselm were 25-18, 25-10 and 25-14. Set scores against Jefferson were 25-17, 25-11 and 25-18.
Melfy is coaching a relatively young team aside from Haan, Coulter and Chambel.
“Everyone else is young. But they are just–kind of just fearless. So to me, I think what you can expect is that we will be competitive again. I think we will be competitive,” Melfy said.
Melfy is optimistic about her team’s prospects this season.
“We will be hard to beat. People are going to have to beat us. We will probably not beat ourselves. So I am excited about this group,” Melfy said.
ESU (9-2) returns to the court to take on former ESU Volleyball Head Coach Allison Keeley and the Kutztown University Golden Bears (0-11) on Friday, Sep. 27, at 7 p.m. to kick off Family Weekend at ESU.