WILMINGTON — Avery Brown and Faith Kleitz combined for 24 kills as Ursuline’s volleyball team won its second consecutive match, this one a sweep of Caravel on the afternoon of Nov. 16. Set scores were 25-14, 25-19, and 25-14.
The Raiders jumped out front in the first set, and a big run midway through sent them on to victory. Caravel closed to within 11-8 on an ace by Lily Morton, but the Raiders responded with a six-point run. The Raiders scored on a pair of hitting errors, a Kleitz bomb, an Ava Panunto cross, a Kleitz tip and an ace from Maria Kennedy.
Allyson Brockell drilled a kill for the Bucs, but the Raiders continued to build their lead. The set ended when Brown was blocked and the ball landed out of bounds.
The second set was a back-and-forth affair, with Nicole Rankin tying the score at 10 with a smash down the left side. But the Raiders’ play on the next point injected some energy in addition to giving them the lead for good.
Morton’s serve was pancaked by Ursuline’s Kaitlin Burns, with the ball knocked by Kennedy toward the back line and libero Heyli Velasquez. Velasquez sent a free ball over, and the Raiders ended up winning the point. Ursuline maintained a lead of four to six points, with Panunto and Kleitz scoring the final two to put the home team up a pair of games.
The Raiders used a five-point run to put some distance between themselves and the Buccaneers in the third set. With the score 13-9, Ursuline scored first on a Caravel hitting error before Velasquez served up an ace that made it 15-9. Velasquez then kept the next point alive with a diving save that Kennedy sent over on two for a point. Samiah Sudler-Brooks threw up a huge block, and the run ended on a hitting error.
The match ended in fine fashion for the Raiders. Kleitz scored her last kill with a cross-court winner, followed by an ace from Hannah Kelley. Kelley sent it to match point with another ace, and Kate Kardash got her lone kill of the day with a stuff of an overpass to end the match.
Brown led the way with 13 kills, while Kleitz had 11. Kelley’s line included four kills, two aces and three blocks. The Raiders (5-4) travel to Padua on Saturday at 5:30 p.m.
No statistics were available for Caravel late Monday night. The Buccaneers (7-3) had a seven-match winning streak ended. They are off until next Monday, when they host Conrad at 6:15 p.m.
All photos by Mike Lang.
