LAKELAND, Fla. - Southeastern women's volleyball team earned their second conference game victory, defeating Johnson & Wales in three sets (25-14, 25-17, 25-21) Saturday afternoon.
"We brought intensity, and really played for each other," said head coach, Audrey Goldsberry. "Recently, I think we have struggled to play as a team, and today you could really tell the girls were sacrificing themselves and their bodies in order to stay in the plays."
The first few plays of the set were head-to-head and the match would be tied 7-7. The Fire would go on a five-point run to take a 12-7 lead over the Wildcats and force J&W a time out.
Johnson & Wales would try to make up some points, however Southeastern went on a six-point streak and would lead the set 18-9. The Fire earned the remaining seven points to take the set and only allowed their opponents to obtain five points.
Junior, Hannah Kaszubowski lead SEU with a hitting percentage of .600 and earned a total of three kills. Second leader for the Fire was sophomore, Maggie Seagren with a hitting percentage of .556 and five kills.
Southeastern collected ten assists in the first set, all ten assists were from senior, Sarah Castillo.
The Fire would take a 19-14 against the Wildcats, and would close out the second set with a 6-3 run winning 25-17 in the second. The Wildcats struggled in the second set, allowing 11 errors and only hitting a .026 percentage.
With the Fire winning two sets to none, the Wildcats would try to turn things around. The third set saw eight ties and five lead changes.
Johnson & Wales would have a 21-18 advantage over the Fire. Southeastern would go on seven-point run to finish the set and sweep the Wildcats. Six of those seven points were from services by Seagren.
The Fire would finish the day with a total of 39 kills. Leading Southeastern in kills was Kaszubowski (10), Seagren (9), and Emily Kalmink (8). Castillo would tally a total of 26 assists on the day.
"I think this win we really learned how to be consistent especially with our energy because last couple of games we have struggled," said Seagren. "So today we stepped up and when we were down, we bounced back and increased our intensity."
Goldsberry also comment on sophomore player Seagren. "Maggie has so much passion and heart, and she has been such a pleasure to coach. She stepped up big time for us knowing that we really needed some roles filled, and she took it on and 100% bought in today".
The Fire will return to action on October 2nd, as they go on the road to play Warner University at 7 p.m.
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