HAVERFORD, Pa. - The Haverford College volleyball team opened up the Centennial Conference portion of the season with a tough four-set loss to visiting Muhlenberg. Set scores were 25-19, 20-25, 25-20, 25-17. Sara Matsumura had 38 digs to set a new career high for the third time this season while establishing a new program record for digs in a four-set match. Matsumura ran her conference leading total in the category to 304, 54 digs clear of second place. Haverford falls to 9-4 on the season (0-1 CC) while Muhlenberg now sits at 11-2 (1-0 CC).
Haverford dropped the first set after pulling out to a 4-0 advantage. Muhlenberg rallied to take the lead at 6-5, and built up a cushion as large as three at 9-6 before the Fords stormed back to tie things at 10-10. Haverford trailed by just one at 18-17 as Julia Gallagher-Teske finished a kill that lit up the home crowd and fired up the bench. Muhlenberg squashed the momentum, as the Mules went on a 4-0 run from that point, inducing a Haverford timeout at 22-17 and finishing the set with a 25-19 victory.
Set two went to the Fords behind a defensive effort that held Muhlenberg to just a .041 hitting percentage. The Fords went up 8-3 as Claire Nicholas punctuated the run with a kill, leading to a Mules timeout. Muhlenberg tied the score at 14-14, but a block from Gallagher-Teske and Zoe Wong put an exclamation point on a 3-0 run to swing momentum back to Haverford. The Fords were able to close out the set with a 4-0 run, stretching a 21-20 advantage into a 25-20 victory.
Muhlenberg hit .395 in the third set, turning an early 11-11 tie into a 21-13 lead with an accurate attacking effort that saw just two errors in the set. The Fords were able to make things tough on the visitors, going on a 5-0 run in the waning moments before the Mules were able to take a 2-1 match lead, finishing the set at 25-20.
The fourth set saw Muhlenberg and Haverford evenly matched, with each squad contributing 10 kills and Muhlenberg making four errors while the Fords made five. Back-to-back service aces from Maggie Enestvedt led to a Haverford timeout as a 14-13 advantage stretched into a 20-13 lead for Muhlenberg. Haverford kept it close with four straight points, including the first career service ace for Christine Anderson, closing to within 20-17 before Muhlenberg took control of the match, ending the night on a 5-0 run that included a pair of service aces from Tara Register.
Natalie Pisch had a match-high 16 kills while Nicholas added 11. Each added 13 digs. Wong pitched in 35 assists. Kelly Tornetta paced Muhlenberg with 15 kills while Register and Enestvedt also had double-digit outputs. Shannon Hubert put up 42 assists and four Mules had double-digit digs in the road victory. Haverford still owns a 24-11 all-time advantage over Muhlenberg including three of the last five meetings.
The Fords return to action with a tri-match on Saturday in Lancaster, Pa. The Fords will square off with host Franklin & Marshall at 12:00 p.m. before a neutral site matchup with Moravian at 2:30 p.m.