WATERBURY, Conn. – It was a full team effort for Post University Women's Volleyball on Tuesday night in their return to the Drubner Center, moving to 4-0 in conference play after sweeping through Dominican (N.Y.), 3-0, on an evening where the Eagles attacked at a .175 clip overall, holding the Lady Chargers to under 20 points in two of the three sets they won. 

THE BASICS

Post University 3, Dominican (N.Y.) 0  

Post University (13-2, 4-0 CACC)

Dominican (N.Y.) (4-9, 1-3 CACC)

HOW IT HAPPENED
Four players for Post finished the match defensively with 10-plus digs as senior libero Alyssa Groves led the way with 17 digs, followed by graduate setter Alice DiFrancesco with 14 digs, and both junior middle blocker Vivien Andrea Fehervari and sophomore outside hitter Alexa Arnold finished with 10 each. DiFrancesco had another 30-assist match, making it five consecutive matches reaching that mark as Post is now 9-1 on the season when she has 30 or more assists.

Graduate outside hitter Kristina Peric was the only player from either team to record more than 10 kills, finishing the evening with 14 kills on 45 attempts with only one error for a season-high .289 attack percentage. Peric has reached the double-digit kill mark in all but one match so far this season, when she had nine kills against St. Thomas Aquinas College back on September 20th. Sophomore middle blocker Alani Duncan finished with the highest attack percentage at .455 with seven kills on 11 attempts, three block assists, and a block solo in the win.

On the other side for Dominican (N.Y.), junior setter Layla Shipley had a team-high nine kills on 28 attempts, but only attacked at a .036 clip after committing eight errors. Junior setter Kaeden Sanstead led the Lady Chargers with 27 assists, while freshman libero Haile Comeau had 14 digs for a Dominican (N.Y.) team that had a .041 attack percentage at the end of the match.

Through the first two sets, Post never trailed, only tying with the Lady Chargers once at one all before pulling away with a 7-0 run in the first set to take a 12-4 lead, eventually winning by 11 points, 25-14. The Eagles finished that set with a .333 attack percentage, committing only three errors while having 12 kills on 27 total attempts. Over the next two sets, the margin of victory would dwindle to eight points, 25-17, and then four points in set three, 25-21, in the sweep.

The Eagles opened set two with a 6-0 run courtesy of two kills each from Peric and Duncan, leading by as many as nine points, and only trailed three times by one point each in the middle of the third set. The first time Post fell behind in the entirety of the match would be on back-to-back kills from senior middle blocker Savannah Tody and sophomore right-side hitter Alexandria De Iasi, which made it 12-11, in a set that had eight ties and two lead changes. Trailing 14-13, a 7-0 run started by Peric gave the Eagles the lead, 20-14, en route to the sweep.

Post has now won five consecutive matches against the Lady Chargers since the start of the 2023 season, sweeping two of the last three matchups, and improved to 37-14 in the all-time series with this evening's win. 

BY THE NUMBERS

• Sitting at 2,196 career digs after tonight's match, Alyssa Groves is only 337 digs away from surpassing Chestnut Hill College's Regina Trabosh for the most digs in CACC history, with 2,533 career digs from 2013-16
• Between her time at AIC and Post University, Alice DiFrancesco entered the match with 1,831 career assists. Recording 34 assists tonight, she moves to 169 assists away from 2,000 in her career
• Kristina Peric recorded 14 kills on 45 attempts with only one error, making it her 14th match of the season in which she has had double-digit kills out of 15 total matches 
• Alice DiFrancesco recorded her fourth consecutive double-double with 30 assists and 14 digs in the win, while Vivien Andrea Fehervari had her fifth consecutive match with double-digit digs

 
WHO'S NEXT
Looking to avenge their five-set loss from a year ago in the Drubner Center, Post University heads to Springfield, Massachusetts, to face American International College (AIC) on Thursday at 6:00 PM. The Eagles have lost their last 11 matches since 2004 against the Yellow Jackets and nearly snapped that streak last year, taking a 2-0 lead, before dropping the match in five sets, 3-2.