Bulldogs extend streak to five with 3-1 win at St. Francis Brooklyn

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Rookie Sophie Hoekstra (Millersville, Md.) hit an impressive .533 and registered a match-high 18 kills as the Bryant University volleyball team rebounded from a first-set loss for the 3-1 road victory over St. Francis Brooklyn Saturday afternoon.

The win extended Bryant's streak to five straight as the Bulldogs (16-10, 7-1 Northeast Conference) sweep the season series against the Terriers (4-21, 1-8).

Redshirt-freshman Julia Flynn (Pembroke, Mass.) picked up 10 kills on the afternoon, while senior Taylor Onoyan (Crystal Lake, Ill.) added nine more with three blocks. Sophomore Ally Lunsford (Minneola, Fla.) paced the contest on the block with five, adding four kills, while frosh Kristin Kingi (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) posted 12 digs with seven kills and an ace.

Sophomore Vika Nesterov (Kfar Saba, Israel) stayed hot in the setter position, dishing out a match-leading 41 assists (7 digs), while senior libero Debora Magalhaes (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) paced the outing defensively with 18 digs.

Domenique Gerard led the Terriers with 12 kills and a .346 attack percentage, posting the only double-double of the day for either side with 10 digs. Maggie Niu added nine kills with a pair of blocks, while Niehely Sosa paced the hosts at the net with four stuffs (6 kills).

The Terriers struggled on the serve, giving away 16 points on service errors despite putting up five aces, four of which came from Saleesha Matthews. The Bulldogs registered five aces of their own, and outhit the home side, .250 to .223, in the four-set match.

St. Francis Brooklyn opened the day with a 25-21 victory before the Black and Gold rebounded to tie the match with a 25-21 set-two win. The Bulldogs scored 10 uninterrupted points, served up by Kingi, to turn a 10-9 deficit into a 19-10 lead midway through the frame, and Saturday's visitors rode the momentum to the frame victory. Bryant would hold onto that momentum swing through the next two stanzas, winning 25-21 and 25-17, for the 3-1 final.

As a team, Bryant picked up eight blocks to the Terriers' seven and recorded 10 more kills, 50-40.

The first-place Bulldogs put their five-match win streak on the line Sunday at LIU Brooklyn in a 3:00 p.m. matchup. The last time these teams met, Bryant snapped the Blackbirds' 43-match NEC winning streak with a 3-1 win at the Chace Athletic Center back on September 27.