BALTIMORE, Md. – The Hood College women's volleyball team could not close out Notre Dame of Maryland University, falling 3-2 in five sets.
Set Scores
The Gators won 25-22, 17-25, 21-25, 25-15, 15-8.
Inside the Box Score
Ann Ofoegbu (Falling Waters, W.Va./Spring Mills) led the Blazers in kills with 20.
Maria Ricketts (Adamstown, Md./New Life Christian) had 39 assists to lead the team.
Cam Madden (Carlisle, Pa./Big Spring) finished the evening with 21 digs.
Anna Daley (Erie, Pa./Harborcreek) had four total blocks.
How it Happened
The match started off with a battle, as neither team could establish a lead until a 5-1 run for NDMU put Hood in a 14-10 hole. Although the Blazers took the next two points to trim their deficit, the Gators went on a 7-1 run to take an eight-point lead and looked to close things out. A kill from Madden sparked a massive response from Hood though, scoring seven straight to make it a one-point game at 21-20. That would be as close as the Blazers could get though, as NDMU got the four points it needed to
take a 1-0 match lead.
Hood was clearly fired up after letting the first set slip away from it, jumping out to an early 6-1 lead in the second set and never letting the Gators back into it, seemingly scoring two or three points for every one point from NDMU and eventually tying the match at 1-1.
Set three was much more evenly matched, as despite the Blazers going up 12-7 early on the Gators kept fighting to make it 14-14 midway through. Three straight points for Hood thanks to a pair of kills from Madden put it back on top though, and both teams began exchanging points until the Blazers eventually reach the 25-point mark and took their first match lead.
Unfortunately for Hood, after tightly contesting the fourth set with a slight 6-5 advantage, the momentum shifted to NDMU who raced ahead with a 9-1 run and never let the Blazers back into it, tying the match to force a decisive fifth set.
Hood once again battled to prevent the comeback in the final set, but after taking a 5-4 advantage, the Gators took nine of the next 10 points to essentially ice the game, as the Blazers got just two more points before the home team reached 15 to hand Hood a 3-2 defeat.
For the Opponent
Kaliyah Brown led the Gators with 12 kills and 19 digs.
Shelbey Willson had 18 assists.
Up Next
The Blazers head to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania for a trimatch with Rutgers-Camden and Wilkes University Saturday, October 18 at 1 and 3 p.m.
