Colgate Volleyball Outlasts Holy Cross

By John Gilger, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications

HAMILTON, N.Y. – Kaylee Dougherty (Landisville, Pa.) led four players with double figured kill totals as Colgate rallied from a game deficit to edge visiting Holy Cross 20-25, 25-12, 23-25, 25-22, 15-10 in the Patriot League opener, Friday evening at Cotterell Court.

Colgate, which improved to 4-7 overall and 1-0 in league play, received 14 kills from Dougherty and 12 each from Casey Ritt (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Kaleigh Durket (El Dorado Hills, Calif.) to secure the ninth-consecutive victory over the Crusaders. Maureen Colligan (Odessa, Fla.) added 10 in the win.

With the final game knotted at 6-6, senior Kelsea Loveless (Lubbock, Texas) served five straight points to give the Raiders get much needed cushion. Holy Cross shaved the deficit to three, the last being at 13-10, however Durket ripped her 12th kill of the evening to give Colgate match point. Colligan took a set from Meghan Fanta (Hillsboro, Wisc.) from the left side and hammered it for the game winner.

After dropping the first set, Colgate came out a bit tentative in the second as Holy Cross reeled off the first four points of the game. The Raiders recovered to win the game with relative ease.

Down two games to one and trailing by as many as five at 7-2 in the fourth game, the Raiders used five consecutive serves by Devon Applegate (Davidson, N.C.) to get back in the set. With the Crusaders holding a 22-21 advantage, Colgate forced a fifth and deciding game with four consecutive points – two coming off kills by Dougherty. The sophomore had one of her best hitting nights of her career, posting a .542 hitting efficiency. Ritt was equally as effective when called upon as her .526 hitting percentage showed.

Fanta finished with 36 assists, while sophomore Blair Safir (Oakland, Calif.) tallied 16 helpers on the evening. With her assist total, Fanta surpassed 3,500 assists for her career and now only needs 34 more to move into ninth on the all-time Patriot League charts.

Defensively, Applegate led the squad with 19 digs, while Fanta and Logan Keala (Kaneohe, Hawaii) each collected 10.

Holy Cross, which fell to 1-13 overall, was paced by Megan Lynch’s match-high 20 kills. Samantha Surface and Kathleen Colpoys each added 13 kills in the loss. Chelsey O’Donnell handed out 53 of 56 assists for Holy Cross. Libero Angela Chisholm finished with a match-high 26 digs.

The Black Knights improved to 13-3 overall with a four-set victory at Bucknell, Friday evening.

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Colgate Volleyball Outlasts Holy Cross

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