SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Saint Anselm College women's volleyball team concluded a perfect 2-0 road trip to upstate New York with a four-set victory at Le Moyne College.
Saint Anselm has won five matches in a row and eight of its last nine, improving to 16-6 overall on the season and to 6-1 against Northeast-10 Conference opponents. Le Moyne drops to 6-11 on the year and has lost four of its first six NE10 fixtures.
The Hawks won the first set by a 26-24 margin before Le Moyne rallied for a 25-16 victory in set two. Saint Anselm overwhelmed the hosts in set three, 25-9, before holding on for a 25-21 win in the fourth and final set.
Senior Lauren Casey (Jefferson City, Mo.) had 19 kills for Saint Anselm, adding eight digs in the winning effort. Junior Kaitlin Brown (Glendale, Ariz.) had nine kills on 28 swings and matched Casey with eight digs.
Senior Michelle Henwood (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico) had 37 assists, 18 digs and nine kills with junior Audrey Wetjen (Henderson, Nev.) adding nine kills on 16 swings.
Henwood remains her team's leader with 11 double-doubles on the season – she was one kill away from the first triple-double by a Hawks student-athlete since Natalie Steinwart '15 had 49 assists, 12 digs and 10 kills against Mercy (N.Y.) on Sept. 17, 2011.
Saint Anselm hit .275 as a team, the highest attacking percentage in a road match since logging 30 kills on 91 swings (five errors) at Stonehill on Apr. 25, 2021.
Down 18-12 in the first set, Saint Anselm responded with a dominant stretch of offense. Six consecutive points went the Hawks way to begin the comeback. At set point, 24-23, Le Moyne could not close the door and, instead, Saint Anselm posted three consecutive points for the early 1-0 match lead.
Le Moyne scored six of the final seven points of the second stanza after opening up a five-point lead, 19-14. As a team, the Dolphins hit nearly .400 (14-3-28) and limited the Hawks to a match-low .081 hitting percentage (10-7-37).
Saint Anselm went ahead 5-0 in set three, forcing an early time out. The lead for the Hawks grew even further from there, ballooning to 21-6 as Saint Anselm was able to get substitutes some playing time in the third. Saint Anselm held an opponent to single digits in a set victory for the second time this season (Aug. 27 vs. Saint Michael's).
With the score tied at 17 in the fourth, the Hawks used a service error from Le Moyne and a Brown ace to create a 19-17 lead. Casey added an exclamation point to the game with three kills down the stretch, providing the Hawks with a four-set win.
