MORRISVILLE, N.Y. – The Maritime Volleyball team got its season started this weekend with four matches at the Morrisville Tournament hosted by Morrisville. With four matches, Maritime went 1-3 on the weekend.
On Saturday, Maritime was swept by Eastern Connecticut State by a 3-0 score, and later lost to host Morrisville by a 3-1 margin after taking the first set. The Privateers got off on the right foot on Sunday, sweeping the Norwich Cadet by a 3-0 score, before dropping a five-set marathon to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts by a 3-2 score.
Over the four-match span, the Privateers were led by freshman
Sheila Flaherty (West Islip, N.Y./West Islip) with 33 kills, followed by junior
Shannon Brady (Bayport, N.Y./Bayport-Blue Point) with 29. Senior
Carly Lombardo (Setauket, N.Y./Ward Melville) was next on the kills list with 27, followed by sophomore
Meredith Hayes (Houston, Texas/St. Agnes Academy) with 22.
Senior
Erika Bailey (Newark Valley, N.Y./Tioga Central) had 84 assists on the weekend, with a weekend-best 28 coming in the five-set matchup with MCLA on Sunday afternoon. Lombardo led the team with 10 service aces over four games, followed by junior
Gabrielle Kempski (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y./Hendrick Hudson) with seven aces. Bailey was tied for third with six service aces, as she is tied with senior
Alyssa Esposito (Farmingdale, N.Y./St. John the Baptist), who also picked up six.
Kempski led the team defensively with 64 digs as she posted at least 18 digs in each of the final three matches of the weekend. Lombardo was second with 54, followed by Bailey with 32, Brady with 26 and Esposito with 14.
Flaherty led the team with 11 blocks, and six solo blocks, while Hayes picked up where she left off with eight more on the weekend.
In the opener against Eastern Connecticut, the Warriors took the match by the scores of 25-18, 25-20, and 25-16. Against the Warriors, Lombardo led Maritime with four kills and 13 digs, Bailey added nine assists, while Kempski showed her authority with five service aces.
In the second match on Saturday against the host Mustangs, Maritime took the opening set by a 27-25 margin, but dropped the next three including a 23-25 fourth set. Brady led the Privateers with nine kills, as Flaherty was close behind with eight. Kempski had 18 digs, while Bailey had 23 assists. Lombardo had three service aces and four blocks in her four-set effort.
Sunday was better for Maritime as they took care of Norwich in three sets by the scores of 25-18, 25-14, and 25-23. Flaherty led Maritime with a dozen kills and also led with a pair of blocks. Lombardo led with two service aces and 18 digs, while Bailey had 24 helpers in the effort to help the Privateers to their first victory of the 2016 season.
In the final match of the weekend, Maritime took on MCLA as the two locked horns in an evenly balanced match. The Trailblazers took a 25-18 first set, but the Privateers answered with 25-23, 25-22 scores in the next two sets to take a 2-1 lead. MCLA evened the match with a 25-12 win in the fourth, and eventually outlasted Maritime with a 15-11 score in the fifth set. Flaherty led the Privateers again with 11 kills and four blocks, while Lombardo and Esposito both had three service aces. Bailey had 28 assists, as Kempski added 19 digs in the loss.
Maritime (1-3) will come home to Riesenberg Hall Gymnasium on Wednesday evening, when the team welcomes in the York (NY) Cardinals for a 7 p.m. start in Maritime's lone home match of the month of September.
Eastern Connecticut (4-1) will host Coast Guard on Wednesday in their next match; Morrisville (4-1) will host Hamilton on Tuesday; Norwich (0-4) visits Green Mountain on Wednesday; while MCLA (1-3) visits Mount Holyoke on Tuesday evening.
