The top two teams in the CSAC faced off in a potential playoff preview on Tuesday, Oct. 9, in the Nerney Field House.
For the Lady Cavs, a lot was at stake. They entered the game with an 11-game winning streak. They had won their last 17 games against CSAC opponents.
In the end, the last CSAC team to defeat the Cavaliers way back on Oct. 26, 2010 repeated the feat as the Neumann Knights snapped the Lady Cavs’ winning streak at 11 with a 3-2 win.
Approximately 500 fans filled the bleachers and standing room and witnessed the end of the longest winning streak for the Lady Cavs since 2009.
The loss was the first conference loss of the season for the Lady Cavs. Their last conference loss to Neumann in 2010 came by the same score of 3-2. That snapped a 22 match win streak in CSAC play.
As the match opened up, both teams came out with a lot of energy and were evenly matched, tying at 10 in the first set. The Knights then scored six consecutive points and cruised to a win in the first set by a score of 25-17.
“When we played them last year they beat us in the first set,” senior Danielle Carrozza said. “I feel like we came out and over-compensated.”
The second set opened up with the same evenly-matched play. Again, the two teams were tied at 10 after 20 points.
Later in the set, Lady Cavs got four straight attacking errors from the Knights to extend their lead in the set 16-11.
A big kill from Danielle Carrozza forced Neumann to call a timeout late in the set with the score at 23-19.
The Knights fought back to bring the score to within two but the Lady Cavs finished off the set with a 25-21 win.
The third set was much like the first two with neither team able to get an edge staying within two points of each other, and then tying at 17. The Cavs posted four straight points and never looked back taking the set 25-19 with senior Meg Ryan getting the final kill.
At that point, it was evident this game was about much more than a win in the standings. With this serving as a rematch of last season’s CSAC Final, playoff position was clearly on the line.
“The second and third game we realized it was our house, our home court,” Carrozza said. “We were fighting for home court advantage in the playoffs, so we needed to play our game, not worry about is going on for their side.”
In the fourth set, the Knights took control after the beginning exchange of points, pulling ahead 12-8. The Cavaliers were able to pull within five but the lead was too much for the Cavs to rally back. With the 25-18 loss, the Knights forced a final and decisive fifth set.
Cabrini took control of the last set jumping out to a 5-1 lead early and forcing the Knights to call an early timeout. After the timeout, the Lady Cavs continued to press and built the lead to 9-4.
Quickly, the momentum changed.Four unanswered points from the Knights brought them back within one. The teams exchanged points ultimately tying at 12. After the Knights pulled ahead for the lead, the Lady Cavs called a timeout.
The Knights scored immediately out of the timeout and set up for match point. The Cavs would get a point to bring the game to a 14-13 score. They had a chance to serve for the tie. But Knights sophomore Kelsey D’Imperio won it for the Knights with a kill.
With that, the win streak was over, as was Cabrini’s undefeated CSAC season. The close match ended in heartbreak as Neumann managed to battle back against all odds in the final set.
Still, the Lady Cavs felt they let this one slip away by not finishing what they had started early in the decisive final set.
“We’re going to learn from our mistakes, learn how to finish better,” sophomore Molly Fox said. “We did good, we just have to keep pushing ourselves.”
The Lady Cavs will attempt to restart their win streak at Gwynedd-Mercy College Thurs. Oct. 11th at 7 p.m.
They return home to face Keystone College on Tuesday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m.
