WATERBURY, Conn. – Down but never out. That was the story of Post University Women's Volleyball on Wednesday night in the Drubner Center against Felician University. After dropping the first two sets against a Golden Falcons team they dominated on the road in September by double-digits in all three sets, the Eagles stormed back for a five-set victory, moving to 10-1 in the conference this fall and extending their season-long winning streak to six consecutive matches.

With five conference matches to go in the regular season, Post leads the CACC North Division by two games in the loss column over the University of Bridgeport with the tiebreaker in hand as well at the moment. While it is guaranteed that the Eagles will be in the CACC Tournament in November and are ensured at least the one through three seed, there is still work to be done to clinch a CACC Quarterfinals match at home.

As it stands, Dominican (N.Y.) resides in third at 7-4 in the conference and lost to Post earlier this season, but with the Eagles still needing to play both Bridgeport and the Chargers, there is still plenty of shuffling that can occur with the understanding that Post does control their own destiny.

THE BASICS

Post University 3, Felician University 2

Post University (15-8, 10-1 CACC)

Felician University (6-17, 3-8 CACC)

HOW IT HAPPENED
Senior outside hitter Caley Harper led all players with a 17-kill performance that saw her attack at .175 with seven errors as well as six digs followed by Felician's senior outside hitter Karla Maldanado with 16 kills and a .204 attack percentage to go along with 12 digs on the evening. Graduate outside hitter Sara Enright had a notable match for the Eagles with 14 kills and 14 digs comparable to sophomore outside hitter Megan Barker's 12-kill, 18-dig performance for the Golden Falcons.

Junior libero Alyssa Groves also continued to inch closer and closer to history with 47 digs, just one shy of tying her career-best 48 digs against the University of New Haven earlier this season. Sitting at 1,666 career digs, Groves needs just 24 more digs to break Kerry Smith's record of 1,689 digs which she set way back in 2008 after four years of playing whereas Groves is slated to pass the mark in only her third year with the program.

After attacking at a season-high .494 against the Golden Falcons back on September 18th, Post only hit .157 this evening and had 30 errors after only having five in the previous matchup. Felician saw an uptick in their hitting percentage from a -.033 performance a month ago to .114 this evening but had more errors jumping from 18 to 25 across the five sets compared to the three sets from last time.

Both teams traded 5-0 leads in the first two sets before crawling back into it as they went on and in set one a backbreaking 4-0 run for the Golden Falcons gave them a 17-14 lead in which they never looked back on en route to a 25-19 set victory. Trailing by as many as seven in set two, Felician fought their way back into the set again trailing by five, 21-16 and used a 5-0 run to tie things up before another 4-0 run down 23-21 helped them put Post on the brink with a 2-0 match lead after that 25-23 win.

But in a match defined by runs, it would be the Eagles' turn in set three to do the same and a 13-2 run would be more than enough to give Post a 10-point lead to win 25-18 and stay alive to force a fourth set. A tighter fourth set saw Felician come back from a 17-13 deficit to tie it up at 17 all and with the Eagles leading by just one, 20-19, they would go on to win 25-20 with a 5-1 run to force a fifth and final set.

Earning their first five-set victory after trailing 2-0 since October 13th last year at home against Holy Family University, Post trailed 10-8 and used three straight Harper kills to take the lead back, 11-10. Tied at 12 all, graduate outside hitter Kristina Peric kicked off a game-winning 3-0 run to help the Eagles pull off the comeback with a 15-12 set win that was capped off by an attack error from freshman middle blocker Elisia Hamilton.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Alyssa Groves finished with 47 digs in today's match, putting her at 1,666 in her career, she is currently second all-time in digs in program history chasing only Kerry Smith (2005-08) who owns the all-time record with 1,689 career digs
• When Post University's attack percentage is above .200 for an entire match, they remain 10-0 this season – When the Eagles attack below .200 as a team, they are now 5-8 overall, Post attacked at a .157 clip this evening against Felician University
• This is the first time since October 14th, 2023, against Holy Family University in which Post University trailed 2-0 in a match and came back to win in five sets
• At 10-1 in conference play this season, this is the best start for Post University in the CACC since they were 16-1 in 2016 before finishing 17-2 overall

 
WHO'S NEXT
Post University faces a tough test in last year's CACC Championship runner-up Jefferson University at home on Saturday afternoon in the Drubner Center at 1:00 PM. The Eagles have lost nine straight matches dating back to 2016 against the Rams and were swept in their regular season matchup as well as their CACC Quarterfinals matchup both on the road last year.