Nashua, NH – The Rivier College Raiders are headed to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championship match for the fifth time in the last six seasons after a 3-1 victory tonight at the Muldoon Health and Fitness Center in Nashua, NH against Emerson College. Rivier, the #2 seed in the GNAC tournament defeated the #3 seeded Lions by scores of 25-15, 25-12, 24-26, 25-19 to capture the match and send themselves to the GNAC finals.
Last season it was Emerson who sent the Raiders home in the semifinal match after a 5 set battle in Boston, but this season, with the change of venue, it was the raiders who pounced all over the Lions to move on to the finals. In the first set, senior middle hitter Nicole Rodriguez(Newton, MA) gave the Raiders a quick 5-1 lead on a service run that took the Lions out of system early. The Lions tried to battle back, but some great defense by the Raiders and a number of miscues by the Lions gave the Raiders a 10 point lead at 19-9. The Raiders had a 22-10 advantage when a service error gave the ball back to the Lions and junior Megan Kaplon (Yellow Springs, OH) was able to go on a 4 point service run to bring the score to 11-15, but a service error gave the ball back to the Raiders and sophomore Kenna Finlayson (Derry, NH) served two aces in a row to cap of the game 25-15.
Set two started much the same way, as Rodriguez again put the Raiders out front 4-0 before the Lions could get the sideout. It wasn't long, however, before set two got out of hand and the Lions found themselves in a big hole. Finlayson went on a 7 point service run to give the Raiders a 13-3 advantage, then after a kill by Rivier freshman Nicole Peacock (Warwick, RI), junior Emileigh Cenedella(Townsend, MA) pushed the Raiders lead to 19-3 before committing a service error to give the ball back to the Lions. Emerson's freshman defensive specialist Jamie Morgan (Maple Glen, PA) did her best to get the team back into as she went on a 7 point service run to close the gap to 19-11, but after a timeout by Rivier's Coach Craig Kolek, Rodriguez was able to get a kill for the sideout and freshman Jessica Amaral (E. Providence, RI) finished the match on another 4 point service run, with Finlayson getting the final kill of the match to give the Raiders a 25-12 victory in set two and a 2-0 lead in the match.
Set three looked to be more of the same as the Raiders again jumped out to a 6-1 lead, but the Lions weren't about to give up, clawing away little by little until Jamie Morgan once again ran off 6 points in a row to give the Lions a 20-19 lead. A kill by Raiders senior Danielle Jacques stopped the bleeding and tied the game at 20-20 and the Raiders quickly jumped on top 22-20 on a setting error by Jessica Drumright (San Francisco, CA) and a Rodriguez kill. A service error by Cenedella gave the ball back to the Lions, but a Jacques Kill gave the home team another 2 point advantage. A block by Rodriguez and setter Lauren Saccoccio (Warwick, RI) gave the Raiders a 24-21 lead and 3 chances to win the game. However, a Kelsey Scanlon (Sonoma, CA) kill cut the lead to 22-24, followed by a blocking net violation by Rodriguez and an attack error by Meghan Farrell (Marlborough, MA) quickly tied the game and gave the Lions hope. Two more straight hitting errors by Finlayson ended the game 26-24 with the Lions taking full advantage of the Raiders mistakes and cutting the Rivier lead to 2-1 in the match.
The fourth set started again with the Raiders jumping out to a 6-2 lead on the heels of a Saccoccio service run which included three hitting errors by Emerson hitters. Emerson cut the lead to three twice in the game, at 13-10 and 18-15, but timely kills by Farrell, Rodriguez and Finlayson kept the Lions at bay. With the visiting team trailing 24-19, Alexa Krakowiak (Westport, CT) made a service error off the left side of the court to give the Raiders the 25-19 victory and finish the match 3-1.
The Raiders, who are now 23-10 overall, were led by Kenna Finlayson's 14 kills and 14 digs, while setter Lauren Saccoccio dished out 32 assists and added 7 digs of her own. Middles Nicole Rodriguez and Nicole Peacock had 11 and 9 kills respectively with Peacock leading the way with 4 blocks and the back row tandem of Emileigh Cenedella and Caitlin Callahan (Dedham, MA) combined for 20 digs.
Emerson was led by outside hitters Kelsey Scanlon and Maddie Breeland's (Fairfax, VA) 7 kills each while setter Katie Bailey (Calabasas, CA) tossed up 15 assists. Libero Sara Rutan led all defensive people with 20 digs in the match and Alexa Krakowiak along with middle hitter Erin Moriarty (Higganum, CT) each had 2 blocks in the match.
With the win the Raiders move on to the GNAC Championship game against top seeded Johnson & Wales University, who defeated the fifth seeded Emmanuel College Saints 3-1 tonight in the other semifinal match. The game will be played at Johnson & Wales in Providence, RI on Saturday November 6th at 1:00 PM.
