Boxscore
PIKE CREEK, Del. – The Goldey-Beacom College volleyball team fell in straight sets (25-12, 25-20, 25-19 to the top team in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, Caldwell on Sat. afternoon at the Joseph West Jones Center.
The Lightning fell to 7-16 overall and 1-13 in the CACC while Caldwell improved to 16-6 overall and 13-2 in league play.
Junior Rebecca Stoffer, coming off a season-high 13 kills on Thurs. night in the Lightning's 3-0 win over Bowie State, had another solid outing with seven kills (.182 hitting percentage) and four blocks (one solo).
Sophomore Monica Dempsey and junior Roni Shaner both contributed with well-rounded efforts on the day as well. Dempsey registered four kills, seven assists, a team-high 13 digs and one block assist while Shaner pitched in with four kills, a team-high 11 assists and four digs. Sophomore middle hitter Catherine Howard added three kills.
Senior A.J. Hicks added eight digs for the day as she surpassed the 900 mark for her career. She now has 905 digs at Goldey-Beacom.
The Cougars, who came into the match leading the league in hitting percentage, kills and assists, had much more success offensively with 37 kills to GBC's 23. Caldwell outhit the Lightning .207 to .048 for the match.
Justine Pecora paced the Cougars with a match-high nine kills (.438) while Amber Mosher and Cory Roesing each tallied seven. Titilola Alao, the individual kills leader in the conference, pitched in with six kills on nine swings (.444). Setter Lauren Roth, the individual assists leader in the CACC, directed the offense with 21 assists in just two sets. Brittany Denter came on as setter in the final set and had 13 assists.
Caldwell dominated the first set as the Cougars outhit GBC .231 to .037 and took advantage of seven Lightning errors and a string of five consecutive aces by Tiffany Grupp to win by a lopsided score of 25-12.
A rejuvenated Lightning squad played much better in the second set and competed right until the very end. The Lightning forced the top offensive team in the conference into seven early errors and led 12-9 in the early going, forcing a Caldwell timeout.
Cougar coach Megan Hrbek called another timeout minutes later with the Lightning ahead 16-10,and this time it paid off. Caldwell then went on a 5-1 run and closed the gap to 17-15, forcing GBC head coach Rich Bowers to then take a timeout.
Still, Caldwell scored four of the next six points and knotted the score at 19 apiece. Stoffer came through with a big kill to put the Lightning back ahead, 20-19, but the Cougars would close out the set on a 6-0 run that included a Pecora kill, a Becca Feczer ace, a Caldwell block (Roth and Kasey Bausch), and three GBC attack errors. The Cougars won the set 25-20 and took a 2-0 match lead.
The third set saw Dempsey blast three of her four kills for the match, but Caldwell hit .320 as a team (13k 5e 25 ta) and was just too much for GBC. Pecora led the Cougar charge with five kills in the set on six swings. Feczer and Alao had three kills each as well.
Up next, the Lightning go on the road to face CACC foe Philadelphia University on Tues., Oct. 26 at 6 p.m.
