ASTON, Pa. – The Neumann University women's volleyball team split a pair of matches at day two of the Knights Invitational on Saturday.
Neumann opened the day defeating Cedar Crest 3-0. The Knights then battled against Gallaudet, but fell in five, 3-2.
Regan Hickey led the Knights against the Falcons with 14 kills and 17 digs.
Dani Smith handed out 31 assists and notched 16 digs.
Claudia Bournazel added 13 digs.
The teams battled back and forth in the first set until the Knights took a 17-16 lead and scored four straight points to extend their lead to 21-16. Neumann took advantage of two Cedar Crest attack errors to win 25-18.
In set two, Neumann scored six of the first eight points and cruised to a 25-13 win. The Knights pulled away in set three when they scored six of seven points to gain a 13-7 advantage. The Falcons pulled back to within one, 16-15. A kill by
Maria Brown sealed the set (25-21) and match win.
In the five-set battle against Gallaudet, Hickey tallied 21 kills.
Lauren Garvey added nine. Five Knights notched double-digit digs: Smith (18), Bournazel (14), Hickey (14),
Tori Burgess (14) and Garvey (13). Smith dished out 34 assists and five service aces.
The teams traded set wins with the Bison taking one, three and five and the Knights winning two and four. Down 15-13, Gallaudet scored seven straight points to take a 20-15 advantage. A Hickey kill tied the set at 21. Each team then scored two points for a 23-23 score. Two Bison kills gave Gallaudet the 25-23 set one win.
Set two was much of the same. Gallaudet took a late 24-21 lead when Neumann scored five straight points, including two kills by Hickey and another by Brown, to win set two 26-24.
The third set was no different and the Bisons won 25-21. The Knights took an early 8-3 lead in set four and extended their lead to 17-7. Neumann won set four 25-17 to force a fifth set. Expecting nothing different, the teams were knotted at 10. Gallaudet then scored five of the next six points to take the deciding set 15-11 and the match 3-2.
Smith was named to the All-Tournament team.
Neumann (2-9) remains home and will host Misericordia on Tuesday evening beginning at 7:00 PM.
