Rams sweep Pride
A night after falling in three games to Northeastern, the VCU Rams brought out their brooms and took out the frustration on another conference opponent. Ariel Newman (Greensboro, N.C./Southern Guilford) recorded 14 kills and Elisa Kuehnel (Dresden, Germany/Sportsgymnasium) added 11 in a 3-0 win over the Hofstra Pride.
A night after falling in three games to Northeastern, the VCU Rams brought out their brooms and took out the frustration on another conference opponent. Ariel Newman (Greensboro, N.C./Southern Guilford) recorded 14 kills and Elisa Kuehnel (Dresden, Germany/Sportsgymnasium) added 11 in a 3-0 win over the Hofstra Pride.
The victory improved VCU’s record to 3-2 in the CAA and 11-7 overall. Hofstra fell to 2-3 in the conference and 8-10 overall.
The first game began as a back-and-forth battle with the teams trading points. However, after Newman committed an attack error to give the Pride a 13-12 lead, Kuehnel registered three consecutive kills, followed by two Hofstra attack errors to give the Rams a 17-13 lead. The Pride called a timeout to stop the bleeding, but they were unable to get closer than two the rest of the set. After an attack error brought Hofstra within 21-19, a kill by Mariel Frey (Lititz, Pa./Manheim Township.), an attack error and two consecutive service aces by Newman gave the Rams a 25-19 win in game one.
In the second set, the Rams jumped out early and took leads as large as five points, but the Pride would battle back. After a Kuehnel kill to make the score 17-12, the Pride went on a 5-1 run that forced a VCU timeout. The teams traded points back and forth the rest of the way with Hofstra taking a 23-22 lead. However, consecutive kills by Lenka Melicharkova (Zlin, Czech Republic/Arkansas-Little Rock), Kuehnel and Kelsie Clegg (Boise, Idaho/Boise Senior) sealed the deal on the second game.
In the third and final set, the Rams once again raced out to a big lead with an eight-point, 11-4 lead. Once again, Hofstra made a run at the end, closing a 24-19 deficit down to 24-23 before Newman made her final kill to win the match.
Klegg recorded 20 digs in the game while Laryssa Goncalves (Curitiba, Brazil/Colegio Dom Bosco) had 14 and Newman added 11. For Hofstra, Harmonie Calinda had 12 digs and 10 kills.
The Rams are back in action Thursday night in Williamsburg against William and Mary.