ONEONTA, NY – The Hartwick volleyball team took care of their business on Wednesday night, calmly sweeping visiting Utica of Lambros Arena in three sets (25-20, 25-18, 25-15). The win, which is the Hawks's sixth in a row, puts the Hawks at 14-2 on the season and 4-1 in the Empire 8, while Utica drops to 6-13 overall and 2-4 in conference.
A set one that started very back and forth finally seemed to take a turn for the Hawks when Toria Betelak (North Syracuse, NY/Liverpool) had consecutive kills to give the Hawks a 14-13 lead. A wild rally that had both teams diving on the floor and flying around the net ended up in favor of the Pioneers to make the score 17-16 in favor of the Hawks. It was Colette Maloney (Williston Park, NY/Mineola) with back-to-back points to slow the Pioneers' momentum and get the score to 19-17. Myla Dobson (Burnt Hills, NY/Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake) had a kill to make it 20-17, then Maloney followed with another kill and popped the score to 23-20, forcing the Pioneers to recoup and call a timeout. Maloney ended her fantastic first set performance with an ace to give the Hawks the 1-0 match lead.
The Pioneers opened up set two with a 4-0 lead on the Hawks that was slowed by a Betelak and Staecia Silofau (Kapolei, HI/Maryknoll) block. A vicious Betelak block once again got the score to 7-3, and she followed it up with an ace to make it 7-4. The score would get to 8-4 in favor of the Pioneers, but back-to-back kills from Dobson put the score at 8-6 and with kills in the air setter Kayley Ericson (Franklin, CT/Norwich Free Academy) picked up one of her own to make it 8-7. Maloney then settled the score at 8's with a high-flying kill of her own.
A service ace from Kaileigh Brandow (Manorville, NY/Eastport South Manor) put the score at 9-8, and later on another ace, this one from Sarah Petz (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas), made it 12-10 and it seemed as if the Hawks were gonna take off from the back-and-forth play. Back-to-back-to-back Silofau kills made the score 15-11 and later on the Hawks put four points in a row on the board, thanks to a a service error from the Pioneers, Dobson kill, Betelak ace, and Dell Potts (Niverville, NY/Ichabod Crane) kill. This sequence put the scoreboard at 21-13. Another Dobson kill made it 24-16, and an Ericson kill sealed the second set at 25-18.
Set three opened with the ball in the hands of the Pioneers, and Betelak made sure the Hawks kept the momentum with a kill to make the score 1-0. The Pioneers slowed the momentum with two points of their own, but Betelak once again put the Hawks ahead 3-2 with another kill. A couple points later, she kept up her spectacular performance with back-to-back aces to make the score 7-2. A quick three point run from the Pioneers got the score to 8-5, but senior Ericson had a sneaky kill of her own to make it 9-5. After a service error from the Pioneers, Silofau capitalized with a vicious kill that got the score to 10-6.
Betelak followed up with a kill of her own to make the score 11-6, and a bit later on Silofau once again controlled the left side of the net with another thunderous kill to set the score at 14-8. It seemed as if the Pioneers were going to go on a run of their own, but Maloney had a kill followed by an attacking error by the Pioneers that made it 16-12. Silofau continued to rain down kills on the left side of the net for the Hawks making the score 22-15 and Silofau's hops followed over to partner Betelak in the middle of the net who slammed home a vicious kill of her own. Silofau then got her ups back and once again pounded home a kill from the left side for a 24-15 advantage. The ending to a complete match from the Hawks came from Petz behind the service line, who served up an ace to seal set three 25-15 and close the match 3-0.
Silofau led the way for the Hawks tallying up 12 kills and 20 digs. Maloney followed right behind with 12 kills of her own, as well as 10 digs. Ericson tallied a whopping 44 assists.
The Hawks look for their seventh win in a row a week from today when they take on Russell Sage in Albany at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, October 20.
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