Posted by Katie Peverada
The Skidmore College volleyball team fell to Liberty League foe Union College on Tuesday night in their first league match of the season. Despite winning the first set pretty handily, the Thoroughbreds went on to drop three sets in a row to the Dutchmen for a final match score of 3-1.
In the first set, Skidmore surged to an early lead and quickly found themselves with a 10-2 lead thanks to five-straight serving points from Natalie Nagale '14. Union tried to claw back into the set, but with the score 19-13, Clare Kenny '15 served five straight points to end the first set at 25-13.
Union took the second set the same way that Skidmore took the first one, running out to a 10-4 lead before closing it out for a 25-13 lead.
The third and fourth sets both proved to be nail-bitters, with the Thoroughbreds wearing their emotions on their sleeves.
In the third set, the Thoroughbreds had the small home crowd behind them as they crawled out of an early 4-1 hole by winning four straight points, thanks to more great serves from Nagle. Over the course of the set, the teams were tied 11 different times. Skidmore fought off two set points to make it 24-23 before Union was finally able to put away the set on a service error.
The fourth set proved to be eerily similar to the third, with neither team really pulling away as the score was tied on 13 separate occasions. Union was eventually able to go up 12-7, but the Thoroughbreds once again fought back to tie the game at 12-12 thanks to Aria Goodman '15 serving four straight points. With the score tied, again, at 22 all, Union was able to win the serve back and go on a 3-0 run to close out the set at 25-22.
Goodman and Nagale carried the Skidmore offense with 14 and 11 kills respectively, while also adding nine and 11 digs. Corinne Palmer '14 had a .296 hitting percentage to go with her 11 kills. Emma Wilberg '14 had a game-high 36 assists and a .250 hitting percentage. Freshman Marcela Famillar led all players with 29 digs.
The loss dropped Skidmore to 6-5 overall and 0-1 in Liberty League play while Union improved to 10-2 and 1-0.
The Thoroughbreds are in action again on Sept. 28 when they hit the road for the Baruch College Tri-Match.