HANOVER, N.H. – The Niagara Purple Eagles lost to Dartmouth and Army in their last two matches at the Dartmouth Invitational on Saturday.
In the first match, the host Dartmouth defeated the Purple Eagles in straight sets, jumping out a 9-1 lead in the first set. Niagara battled back to cut the lead to 19-15, but the Big Green ended the set on a 6-0 run. The second set had seven ties and four lead changes. Trailing 23-18, the Purple Eagles scored four straight points to trim the deficit to one point and then trailed 24-23 before a kill by Emily Astarita finished the set. NU started the third set on the front foot and led 6-2. The set went back-and-forth, but with Dartmouth leading 20-19, the Big Green pulled out a 25-21 win to clinch the match.
Head Coach Vilis Ozols said that despite the loss to Dartmouth, he felt his team “matched them in almost every category.”
Niagara also fell in straight sets to an efficient Army team, which had .394 hitting percentage in the opening set en route to a 25-16 first set win. In the second set, the Black Knights led 9-7 and used a 9-4 spurt to pull away for the win behind a .345 hitting percentage.
The Purple Eagles will have their home opener on Tuesday against local rival UB at 6 p.m.
from PurpleEagles.com via IFTTT
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