After exiting last week’s finale against SUNY Cortland with a dominating win, the Lady Mules looked to rebuild their winning streak and continue to climb up the standings. With two Centennial Conference foes, Haverford and Dickinson, up next, the squad looked to improve their record within the conference to 2-1 and take them to an 11-3 record overall.
The Haverford Fords entered the Sept. 19 match after closing the Neumann Invitational with two dominating wins taking down both Catholic and Widener Universities in three straight sets.
The Fords looked to keep the momentum on their side and pick up another big win. The first two sets were filled with tight, back-and-forth play as the Mules pulled away for the first set victory 25-21 while the Fords took the second 35-33. Following those two hard fought sets, the Mules took control of the
game and ran with it. The ladies breezed through the third and fourth sets, winning 25-13 and then 25-18.
The group found its success, according to Kelly Tornetta ‘19, an outside hitter for the Mules, through their energy- “It was definitely our energy. We are a very energetic team and when our energy goes up, their energy goes down and we are able to dominate on the court.” Leading the charge was Tara Register ‘20 with 15 kills, Shannon Hubert ‘19 with 39 assists and Maya Illovsky ‘21 with 22 digs.
After the long and successful home stand of eight games, the team hit the road to square off against the 4-8 Dickinson Red Devils in Carlisle, PA. Although falling in five straight games, the Red Devils put up a fight until the very end. Each set was extremely tight from start to finish with more intense back and forth play. Dickinson took command of the first set early, but the Mules kept battling and ultimately came back with a late surge to seal the first set victory. The next three sets alternated between the Mules and the Red Devils until a final and decisive fifth set was needed to settle it. After a hard-fought fifth set, the ladies would, in the end, come away with the 15-11 win and
leave the Kline Center 2-0 on the week. Tornetta praised their play adding, “We’ve been playing really well so far and we want to continue to step up our mentality and have teams feel intimidated each and every time we step out there.”
The Muhlenberg Women’s Volleyball team, now 2-1 in Centennial Conference play and winners of their last three matches, now find themselves in sixth place in the conference standings. The team continues their series of road games as they head off to St. Paul and Arden Hills, Minnesota to take on the University of St. Thomas, St. Olaf College and Bethel University in another action packed week
“We’ve been playing really well so far and we want to continue to step up our mentality.”
of games. The squad will touch down in Minnesota on Thursday and return on Sunday.
Tornetta was excited for how the travels may prepare the team moving forward. “They are very strong and skilled teams and this will help prepare us for our conference games. We have never seen them before and it will be great to see what they have.”
