Ravens take first game and nearly come back to force a fifth game

Boxscore

RINDGE, N.H. (September 11, 2007) – The Franklin Pierce women’s volleyball team battled hard but eventually fell to Northeast-10 preseason favorite Bentley College by a score of 3-1 (32-34, 30-20, 30-20, 30-26) in a Northeast-10 Conference match at the Franklin Pierce Fieldhouse on Tuesday evening.

Three Ravens reached double figures in kills on the night, led by a team-high 15 kills from sophomore Caitlynn Parnell (Medina, Texas/Medina) and 13 apiece from junior co-captain Nicole Buchholz (Ashburn, Va./Stone Bridge) and redshirt freshman Michelle Koike (San Francisco, Calif./Gonzaga University).

Junior co-captain Karissa Hookstadt (Camarillo, Calif./Camarillo) aided the Raven cause with 48 assists and 16 digs for her third double-double of the season, while freshman libero Chelsie Kohout (Harrison Township, Mich./L’Anse Creuse) added a team-high 21 digs.

Bentley was led offensively by Susan Harrahy (Nashua, N.H./Nashua South), who recorded a game-high 17 kills and 14 digs, and Alex Kearney (La Jolla, Calif./La Jolla), with 16 digs, 12 kills and three service aces.

The teams put on a tremendous battle late in game one, after Bentley scored five straight points to take an 18-14 lead. After that point, Franklin Pierce allowed Bentley to string together consecutive points only once, while the Ravens did so five times, including three consecutive points that turned a 32-31 deficit into a 34-32 victory.

The Falcons used some long runs to win both the second and third games by a 30-20 score. In the second game, Bentley scored seven consecutive points to race out to a 15-7 lead and eventually tie the match. In game three, the visitors used a 12-2 run that turned an 8-7 deficit into a 19-11 lead that the Falcons would not relinquish.

Franklin Pierce attempted to recover from another big deficit in the deciding fourth game, scoring nine of 10 points to turn a 27-16 game into a 28-25 score, but the home team could not get any closer and fell in four games.

Franklin Pierce (4-7, 1-1 NE-10) will complete its five-game homestand on Thursday night when the Ravens welcome UMass-Lowell to the Fieldhouse for a non-conference match. Bentley (5-2, 2-0 NE-10) will take part in the Bryant Tournament beginning Friday against Bloomfield.