Abbey Williams, Staff Writer

 

The top ranked women’s volleyball team started out their season with an opening four game win in Boston, working their way to the national championship in the Bentley Volleyball Invitational.

The Mocs took on four different teams in the tournament including Bentley, Minnesota Crookston, New Haven and LIU Post. The team only lost one set in the entire tournament against Minnesota Crookston to have a total of 14 set wins.

“The first match was the most exciting to me because we have new players and I was anxious to finally see everyone perform together,” senior Kendall Marotti said.

The Lady Mocs dominated their first game against Bentley where they won three straight sets and didn’t allow more than 10 points to be scored against them in all three sets.

The team played Minnesota Crookston next and lost the first set, but came back to defeat the Golden Eagles in the following two sets to win the match.

“Playing Minnesota Crookston was the match I remember most because they took a game from us and it didn’t bring us down. We came back from the one game loss and won the next two to win the match,” Tova said.

There was a combined total for the team of 29 kills and a .329 hitting percentage against Minnesota Crookston. Tova contributed 16 of those kills and a .328 hitting percentage, her career high.

For the third game against New Haven the Lady Mocs yet again succeeded, winning in three straight sets where Tova and Marotti combined for a total of 23 kills.

The fourth and final game was against LIU Post where the girls yet again dominated winning in three straight sets.

Tova finished the first tournament with a total of 45 kills, naming her the MVP of the Bentley Volleyball Invitational. In addition, Marotti recorded a total of 40 kills for the first tournament and was named to the 7-member all-tournament team.

According to Tova and Marotti, the team is most looking forward to next playing against Tampa and PBA because the competitive history between the teams and they’re ranked number one.

“Our goals as a team are to make the NCAA regional tournament, and in turn, be in the Elite Eight. My expectations are to continue to improve athletically and personally on and off the court,” Marotti said.

Marotti is joined by three other seniors on the team including Kayshia Brady, Lauren Shelmon, and Bridgette Ward.

The Lady Mocs will next play at Rollins on September 18 and Embry-Riddle Sept. 19, but will be playing rival team Tampa on Oct. 8.