By Liam Reilly
@liampreilly852
SPRINGFIELD – The Springfield College women’s volleyball team took down Emerson 3-0 Tuesday night in Blake Arena. The Pride are now 23-6 and 9-3 at home.
Springfield started the game off with energy, as the crowd roared with energy as senior Emily Keaveney rifled a kill into the hardwood of Blake Arena to start the match. Emerson quickly found their stride and kept up with the Pride as the score was knotted at 12. The Pride’s defense awoke late in the set to outscore the Lions 13-6 to end the first set at 25-18.
Set two saw Springfield leap out to a 4-0 lead courtesy of two kills from first-year Aubrey Hughes. Emerson then caught up to the Pride and entered a back and forth battle. The Lions broke the stalemate and went up 20-17. Emerson looked poised to take a set two victory until Springfield went on an 8-1 run that was capped off by an ace from Ahunna James to win the set 25-18.
The third set once again saw the Pride up early on the Lions after senior Aurissa Boardman rose up and slammed the ball into a pack of defenders. Springfield proceeded to show their defensive prowess, recording blocks on five of Emerson’s attacks with junior Jodi Saelua chipping in on three of them.
“We’ve been working a lot on our blocking this past week and that showed during the game today because we pretty much shut down their offense,” Saelua said.
Slamming a ball isn’t the only effective way to get a kill, demonstrated by the Pride’s ability to float the ball over the Lions blockers. Springfield continued to dominate the set, keeping Emerson’s offense from building any momentum while picking apart their defense. Head coach Moira Long was proud to see her team take charge.
“It’s with a sense of urgency and they took some ownership of it,” Long said. “They were like, ‘We got to do a better job and this is what we need to do.’ In timeouts I wasn’t saying much, it was them taking control of it.”
Up 24-13 and needing just one point to advance to the NEWMAC Championship Tournament Semifinal round, Boardman iced the game with a rifle of a kill that the Lions failed to return.
“It felt really good but I couldn’t have done it without my team,” Boardman said. “It starts with the pass and the set from Tori, which was amazing. To end the game we came out with a ton of energy wanting to finish it in the third set, and I think that’s what helped us win.”
Tonight’s performance was a quick reversal of when the Pride were swept by Babson on Saturday. Long commented on what she noticed tonight that was different from the loss to Babson.
“We served tougher, and they’re a very good passing team but we ran our middle with efficiency,” Long said. “When you become pin dominant, you’re really going to struggle. So we ran our middle and we blocked way better.”
Springfield, Babson, MIT and Coast Guard are all moving on to the semifinal round. Since MIT is the No. 1 seed, the rest of the tournament will be played at their arena. Springfield is set to face off against Babson in a rematch on Saturday.