Bucknell University Athletics
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Bucknell Volleyball Clinches PL Tournament Berth With 3-2 Win Over Holy Cross
11/13/2004 7:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Nov. 13, 2004
LEWISBURG, Pa. - The Bucknell volleyball team needed to win just one game against Holy Cross to earn a berth in next week's Patriot League Tournament, but it did better as it came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Crusaders 3-2 in the final regular-season match for both teams Saturday evening at Davis Gym.
The Bison, who won by game scores of 18-30, 30-32, 30-26, 30-22 and 18-16, fell behind 2-0 but clinched their fifth consecutive postseason berth when Holy Cross served the ball into the net to give Bucknell the 30-26 victory in game three. The Bison (14-12, 8-6 Patriot League) will be the third seed in next weekend's Patriot League Tournament and will battle second seed Army. Navy, which played last-place Lehigh Saturday evening, could tie Bucknell's 8-6 league mark, but the Bison hold the tiebreaker over the Mids.
In the deciding fifth game, Bucknell held a 12-8 lead, but allowed Holy Cross to score five consecutive points to take a 13-12 advantage. From there on the teams traded points as the score was tied at 13-13, 14-14, 15-15 and 16-16 before the Bison finally scored two consecutive points. Senior co-captain Jackie Leahy registered her career-high 34th kill of the match for the final point.
Leahy's 34 kills led the way for Bucknell as she hit .368 in the match. One day after moving into third place on the school's career kills list, Leahy creeped to within 20 kills of fifth place on the single season kills list with 377. Along with her offensive output, Leahy tallied 18 digs as she was second among five Bison in double figures.
Becky Fisher was second on the team in kills with a career-high 23. That figure eclipsed her previous career high of 22 which she set against Holy Cross earlier this season. Fisher hit .353 as the Bison totaled a .252 hitting percentage in the match. Jennie Smith led all Bucknell players with a robust .467 as she recorded seven kills without committing an error.
Setter Jessica Le recorded 61 assists in the match as she eclipsed the 1,000-assist mark for the season. She now has 1,038 to rank third on Bucknell's single-season list. Le also chipped in 13 digs. Along with Leahy and Le, Carolyn Dougherty (19), Fisher (15) and Chelsea Robertson (14) had at least 10 digs as Bucknell totaled 88 as a team.
Holy Cross had a solid showing as four players tallied at least 10 kills, led by Caitlin Agostinacchio's 27. She also had 14 digs, while Valerie Mora led the Crusaders with 23. Setter Michelle Leahy matched Le's total of 61 assists. Holy Cross did outhit the Bison as it connected on 74 kills for a .268 percentage. Caitlin O'Callaghan led the way by hitting .478.
The Patriot League Tournament starts next Friday, Nov. 19. Bucknell will take on Army in one semifinal, while host and top seed American will face Navy in the other semifinal. The two winners will square off Saturday evening with a berth in the NCAA Tournament at stake.
