Hawks Fall in Three Sets to Nova

In the first set, NOVA jumped out to a 6-1 lead after a kill by Lauren Havill. The Hawks would come back to cut the score 6-5 thanks to the serving of Zaira Ducket, which included an ACE and some attack errors on NOVA. Both teams would trade points back and forth until the score was 12-10 in favor of NOVA. The NightHawks would go on a 13-3 run to win the first set 25-13, due in large part to attack errors by CSM. 


In the second set, both teams went back and forth, with the score tied seven times in the set's first 20 total points. After Nova's Ariadna Sanchez committed a service error, the score was cut to two, 13-11. Unfortunately, CSM's Gabrielle Wilson committed a service error, which gave the Nighthawks a point, stretching their lead to three and the opportunity to serve. From that point forward, NOVA went on an 11-6 scoring run to win the second set 25-17. In that run the Hawks were able to cut the score to three, due to a kill by Kaitlyn Kluh to make the score 19-16, but NOVA would pull away with the victory.


With the score tied at three in the third set, NOVA went on another run, scoring on 10 consecutive points with a few aces from Sanchez and a couple kills from Brittany Connatser as they would extend their lead to 13-3. That deficit was too much for the Hawks to overcome as they would fall in the third set 25-16.

Havil, Connatser, and Deveis Wooten combined for 28 of NOVA's 41 kills. The Hawks were led by Reagan Tuiasosopo with six kills and three digs, and Zaiera Ducket performed well coming off a brief thumb injury, having four kills, three aces, and seven digs.