COLCHESTER, Vt. – It was a tale of two matches for Post University Women's Volleyball during their tri-match in Colchester, Vermont on the campus of Saint Michael's College. After sweeping through a Roberts Wesleyan College team, 3-0, that entered the match with an impressive 8-2 record, the Eagles fell in their second match of the day against Saint Michael's in five sets, 3-2, as they head home for a pair of games this week in the Drubner Center with hopes of getting above .500 for the first time since the start of the 2021 season when they started 1-0 with a win against Southern New Hampshire University.
 
THE BASICS

Post University 3, Roberts Wesleyan University 0

Post University 2, Saint Michael's College 3

Post University (5-6)

Roberts Wesleyan University (8-3)

Saint Michael's College (3-6)

HOW IT HAPPENED
It was essentially a dominant performance in the first match of the day for Post against Roberts Wesleyan University, a match in which the Eagles trailed 2-1, 3-2, and 6-4 in set one before never trailing again the rest of the match in the 3-0 sweep. Senior outside hitter Caley Harper paced the way for Post with a team-leading 16 kills on 34 total attempts for a .353 attack percentage.

Four Eagles in total finished the match with an attack percentage above .300 with senior outside hitter Tamara Radovanov (.357), senior middle hitter Hannah Brandt (.429), and graduate outside hitter Kristina Peric (.333) all joining Harper with those marks. Peric was the only other player to reach double-digit kills for Post in that match with 11 kills on 21 attempts.

Junior libero Alyssa Groves had a match-high 29 digs while senior setter Maria Fernanda Branco had a match-high 26 assists and graduate setter Izabella Rae helped the Eagles as well in that category with 14 assists of her own. As a team, Post attacked at a .268 clip compared to just .143 for the Redhawks despite both teams having 13 errors each.

In all three sets, the Eagles did not allow Roberts Wesleyan to reach 20 points with set wins of 25-17, 25-19, and 25-17 to head into their match against Saint Michael's College with momentum.

That momentum would roll over into the matchup with the Purple Knights for at least the first set of a tightly contested match that saw both teams go on large runs to flip-flop the lead. While the Eagles pulled out set one, 25-23, the next two would go the way of Saint Michael's by 25-20 and 25-18 margins before Post forced a fifth set with a 25-20 win in set four.

After leading 2-0 in the 15-point final set, the Eagles would only be able to tie it twice more before the Purple Knights seized a four-point edge, 10-6, and never looked back en route to the 3-2 win with a 15-11 set five win. Graduate outside hitter Sara Enright led the way with 15 kills on 46 attempts for a .217 attack percentage while Harper added 11 more to her total with a .237 attack percentage.

Once again, Groves had another big match with a game-high 30 digs to finish the day with 59 total to move into second all-time in the digs at Post University with 1,325 in her career. The junior sits just over 300 away from Kerry Smith's record which has stood since 2008.

BY THE NUMBERS

• With 27 kills today, Caley Harper caps off a week in which she had a team-leading 41 kills and a .337 attack percentage along with 25 digs, five service aces, two total blocks, and two assists
• Before dropping the second match of the day, the three-game winning streak for Post University was their first since they won four in a row from October 25th until November 7th during the 2022 season
• Alyssa Groves tallied 59 digs in today's matches putting her at 1,325 in her career and moving her into second for the most digs in program history chasing only Kerry Smith (2005-08) who owns the all-time record with 1,689 career digs – Groves passed Janilee Alvarez, Morgan Griffin, and Brianna Root today
• This was the first time in program history in which Post University faced off against both Roberts Wesleyan University and Saint Michael's College

 
WHO'S NEXT
Post University starts a two-game homestand on Tuesday night at 6:00 PM against Caldwell University inside the Drubner Center. This will be the second conference match of the season for the Eagles and the first conference match at home after they beat Felician University last Wednesday on the road. In the all-time series, Post has won five of the last six head-to-head matchups since 2021 and swept the Cougars in both matches last season.