NYU women’s volleyball team opened up the Tear it Up campaign by beating Stevens Institute of Technlogy 25-19, 25-17, 18-21, 16-25, 15-11 on Wednesday night at Coles Sports Center.
The Violets came into the match hungry for a win against a strong Stevens squad. With 10 days of rest and a couple of hard practices under their belts, NYU was fired up and ready to kick off this week’s volleyball play in front of a huge crowd.
To start off the match, NYU used freshman setter Mackenzie Calle in the front row who pulled off a great serve. But defensive errors, especially in the block, were keeping the Ducks in the game.
The Violets used some of its key players to get themselves out of the rut. And it was the junior setter Hope Bogle who finished the set single-handedly. Targeting the libero with short and long services, she helped the Violets take home the first set.
Incredible blocking from Stevens’ senior Maggie Kowalska gave the Ducks the upper hand to begin the second set. Kowalska was hitting around NYU’s triple block in the middle and double block on the outside. But as NYU began to take the lead, the spotlight turned to sophomore hitter Alexandria Mao who totaled 10 of her 19 kills by the second set.
Rallies were short, kills were being won off of the Violets’ untimely blocks and nothing was going NYU’s way because of Kowalska.
“I did notice that I had a committed block to me a lot of the time, so I told my setter to run the middle,” Kowalska said.
Stevens was on the road to the biggest comeback of the year.
“Elements of the game kind of got a little bit shaky,” Mao said. “We got a little
too comfortable.”
Mao took control, and NYU was winning the set 5-4. The Violets’ lead increased with sophomore middle blocker and outside hitter Allie Williams’ block on Kowalska. They continued to dominate in the second and third set; Kowalska was dumbfounded and could not find a way to beat the Violets’ solid defense.
From there, it was easy for NYU to take their final set of the night. Though Kowalska totaled a match-high 20 kills, she could not take home the victory.
Coach Jolie Ward was happy with the team’s victory.
“We’ve worked on some things and gotten better on being able to have this energy on the court to allow us to make mistakes but still feel comfortable coming back,” Ward said.
The Violets maintained their perfect record. Bogle, who tallied 33 assists, said the team would use this match as a stepping-stone for a big weekend of volleyball in University Athletic Association conference play. Their first game is Saturday at 10:30 a.m. against Brandeis University.
A version of this article appeared in the Thursday, Oct. 11 print edition. Nico Cantor is a contributing writer. Email him at [email protected].
