HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College volleyball team finished up its eight game homestand with a 3-0 sweep of visiting Immaculata on Wednesday night at Gooding '84 Arena. The Fords were paced by first year Claire Nicholas who hit .333 with 13 kills while Zoe Wong had 31 assists and added five kills. First year Sydney Miller had five service aces in the victory. Set scores were 25-11, 25-13, 25-13.
The Fords hit .303 for the match while holding Immaculata to -.037. Haverford improves to 6-2 while Immaculata falls to 1-3 on the season.
The first set belonged to the Fords, as Haverford opened up a 20-9 advantage and was able to cruise past the Mighty Macs by a final of 25-11. Julia Gallagher-Teske and Wong teamed up on an early block for a 2-1 advantage before Gallagher-Teske added a pair of solo blocks later in the set.
In the second set, the Fords hit .448 while limiting the Mighty Macs to a .103 hitting percentage. In a similar fashion to the first set, the Fords took advantage of Immaculata errors to pull away. The Mighty Macs got within four at 14-10 before Haverford was able to take a 22-13 lead with a block from Gallagher-Teske and Natalie Pisch cementing the run. Pisch delivered a kill to give the Fords a 2-0 set advantage.
Haverford sprinted to an 11-4 lead to begin the third set, leading to an Immaculata timeout. A 3-0 run punctuated by a pair of Sara Desmond service aces breathed life into the Mighty Macs, but Haverford turned its 11-7 lead into a 22-11 advantage before putting the final touches on a sweep.
In the third and final set, Sara Matsumura left her usual libero role to become part of the Haverford offense, spelling Gallagher-Teske while Christine Anderson took over as libero. Anderson finished with a career best eight digs while Matsumura set new career highs in kills (4) and total attacks (13) in the newfound role.
Matsumura and Pisch each finished with 17 digs while Pisch added 11 kills. Gallagher-Teske had five total blocks to extend her Centennial Conference lead in the category to 34, six clear of Alaina Geissberger of Washington College. Gabrielle Guerrera had six kills to pace Immaculata while Lex Poss added five assists for the visitors.
The Fords improved to 8-0 all-time against Immaculata. The series was renewed in 2016 as the local competitors met for just the second time in the rally scoring era on Wednesday.
Haverford returns to action on Friday as the Knights Invitational at Neumann University gets underway in Aston, Pa. The Fords will face off with Rutgers-Camden at 4:00 p.m. before taking on Catholic in a nightcap at 8:00 p.m.