CALDWELL, N.J. – Freshman outside hitter Nilka Rivera (Bayamon, Puerto Rico) and junior right side hitter Tatienne Tugade-Sua (Kalihi, Hawaii) both set personal plateaus in hitting percentage on Friday evening, propelling the Concordia College (N.Y.) volleyball team to a season-best in the Clippers' 3-0 (25-16, 25-16, 25-20) loss at Caldwell in a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) match.
NOTES
• Concordia drops to 0-10 on the season, 0-8 in CACC play.
• Caldwell improves to 6-11, 5-3 in league action.
STANDOUT PERFORMERS
• Rivera led Concordia with nine digs and eight kills on a career-high .500 hitting percentage while also assisting on a block.
• Tugade-Sua contributed seven terminations on a .400 clip, her career-high with a minimum of 10 attempts, to go with three digs and an assisted block.
• Senior setter Bianca Ortiz (Perth Amboy, N.J.) dished out a team-best 23 assists with five digs.
• Senior middle blocker Derilis Valerio (Perth Amboy, N.J.) assisted on a team-best two blocks while contributing three kills.
• For Caldwell, Elise Smith amassed 24 kills while Samantha Ashton boasted 40 assists and Humiko Stormer recorded 17 digs.
HOW IT HAPPENED
• Caldwell began the match with the opening seven points and kept the Clippers at arm's reach for the entire set. Concordia managed to cut the deficit down to four with a 4-1 response to make it 8-4, but a 5-2 retort by the Cougars recreated the seven-point separation at 13-6 which they continued to build upon in a 25-16 frame.
• With a 5-4 score in favor of Caldwell in the second set, the Cougars scored four-straight to extend the gap to 9-4. Concordia responded with back-to-back tallies to make it a three-point contest and kept it there at 10-7 before Caldwell scored seven of the ensuing 10 points to create a 17-11 advantage.
• Concordia held with Caldwell for the opening 22 points of the third set, seeing a tied 11-all score before a 4-0 Cougar run made it 15-11. The Clippers responded with back-to-back kills to cut the gap in half only for three-straight Cougar tallies extending the deficit to 18-13. The hosts held Concordia without back-to-back points until match points at 24-18.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
• Concordia finished the match with 27 kills on a season-best .182 hitting percentage versus 49 on a .396 clip for Caldwell.
• Caldwell held a 29-26 advantage in digs.
• The hosts served six aces.
• Concordia recorded four assisted blocks while the Cougars posted 14 with one solo block.
UP NEXT
Concordia stays on the road to take on Jefferson University on Saturday, Sept. 29 at noon.
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