Riverdale, NY- Niagara volleyball secured a three-set sweep of a back-and-forth match against the Jaspers on Saturday afternoon at Draddy Gymnasium.
First Set
Niagara came out swinging in the first set winning the set 25-18. The Purple Eagles took an early 4-1 set lead with two attack errors coming from Manhattan. The match continued to be a battle until Niagara started to take the set back over at the 15-14 mark and the next 10 of the last 14 points in the set.
The Purple Eagles had a total of 11 kills in the opening set, leading the way for the Purple and White with three kills was Laryssa Imbuzeiro. On the defensive side of the match, Niagara registered eight digs with Jenna Vogen and Lexi Bapst leading the team with two digs. The Purple Eagles also registered three blocks in the first set, with Janiah Robinson leading the charge with two block assists, Vogen, Imbuzeiro, Bapst, and Payton Lee all had one block assist.
Second Set
The second set of the match was closer with the final score of set two being 25-23. The teams continued to trade points until the score was 9-8 where Niagara took the next three points to make the score 12-8, the back and forth play continued until the score was 13-13 and Niagara ended up taking the next five points to increase the lead 18-13. The teams continued to exchange points until a kill by Cassie Seminoff called set two with a kill from Casey Brown.
Brown had a total of five assists in the second set leading for success for Bapst and Seminoff who each put up four kills while the rest of the Purple Eagles combined for five more kills for a team total of 13. Niagara continued to dominate the match in blocks with six blocks in the second set.
Third Set
In the third, of the first 10 points in the set, six belonged to Niagara. The back-and-forth play continued up into the 13-11 mark which was in favor of Manhattan until Niagara stormed back and took eight of the next 10 points. Kylie Blessing called the game recording a service ace to help the Purple Eagles win the set 25-20 and won the match 3-0.
Blessing had half of Niagara's assists in the final set with five total assists. The assists helped the Purple Eagles on offense to have a total of 12 kills leading the charge in set three was Vogen who recorded four kills. Niagara had a total of three service aces in the final set coming from Blessing, Bella Peroni, and Imbuzeiro.
Niagara Notes
·      With three assists in the first set, Brown notched her 1000th career assist.
·      Niagara moved to 11-6 in MAAC play and is sitting at fourth in the MAAC.
·      The Purple Eagles had a total of 36 kills, leading the charge on offense with eight kills was Seminoff.
·      Niagara also put up 32 assists with 16 coming from Blessing.
·      The Purple Eagles led the match with six service aces compared to the Jaspers five. Imbuzeiro registered three of the aces for the Purple and White.
·      Niagara had 39 digs with Peroni and Bapst leading the team with each recording eight digs.
·      The Purple Eagles had 21 total blocks Imbuzeiro led the team with five block assists.
Up Next
Niagara is closing out the MAAC play tomorrow at Iona with a start time of 1 PM to have momentum leading into the MAAC Championships.
