VB Weekend Recap: Hawks split final road trip of 2023
Competing in the final regular season road matches of 2023, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore went 1-1 over the weekend with a Friday loss at North Carolina Central and a bounce back win on Sunday at South Carolina State.
The trip began with an extended first set in which the Hawks would prevail, 29-27, over NCCU. NCCU managed to edge the Hawks over the next three sets as the Eagles flew past the Hawks with a 26-24 second set win along with 25-21 and 25-22 wins in the third and fourth frames to claim the match in four sets.
The Hawks had four players finish in double-figures in kills led by a career-high 12 and a .579 hitting percentage from junior
Soleil Cotton. She also tallied five blocks on the night. Freshman
Anisa Dorlouis distributed a season-high 31 assists.
While the performances of Cotton and Dorlouis were impressive, NCCU hitter Emmie Modlin and setter Bella Dearinger proved to be a winning formula. Modlin finished with a match-high 21 assists while Dearinger led all players with 46 assists to give the Eagles the win.
After the disappointing loss, the Hawks bounced back with Sunday's three set victory at SCSU.
The Hawks beat the Bulldogs with scores of 25-21, 25-17 and 25-17 to improve to 15-10 on the year and 8-5 in MEAC play.
Sunday was the third three-set win by the Hawks this season.
Junior
Lyric Snowden stepped up for the Hawks offensively with nine kills.
Romina Vacca was impressive on the serve with five aces along with 20 assists.
Isil Yilmaz led all players with 16 digs.
UMES combined for 37 total kills and 15 errors on 85 attacks for a hitting percentage of .259. SCSU tallied 24 kills and 20 errors on 92 attacks for a percentage of .043.
The Hawks return home for the final regular season match of the year on Friday against Delaware State. UMES will honor the senior members of the team prior to the start of the match.
UMESÂ are currently in third place in the MEAC standings heading into Friday's match against DSU. The Hornets (15-12; 8-5) lost to UMES earlier in the year and are currently in fourth place.
Current MEAC Standings:
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