Women's Volleyball | 11/3/2022 11:45:00 AM

PITTSFORD, NY – The St. John Fisher University women's volleyball team (19-7, 9-0 Empire 8) will look to secure their fourth consecutive Empire 8 title, beginning with the semi-final matchup on Friday, November 4 at 5 p.m. against the Houghton Highlanders. The Cardinals enter the tournament having won 38 straight matches against Empire 8 foes, dating back to the start of the 2019 season.  

With a win on Friday, the Cardinals would host the Championship Final against the winner of the other semi-final game, which will feature Utica against Hartwick.

Season Recap: The Cardinals, who are on the search for their third straight NCAA Championship appearance, had two 7+ win streaks this season. Fisher has strong depth, with four players tallying at least 200 points on the season. Sydney French paces the team with 207 kills and a league-best 0.352 hitting percentage with 48 blocks, while standout senior Lindsey DeBonis has 185 kills. Delayne Young leads the team in points per set at 3.43.

Scouting the Opponents: The Cardinals defeated the Highlanders 3-0 in the regular season matchup, their seventh straight win against Houghton.
The first set began with an incredible 9-0 run for the Cardinals, though Houghton was able to claw back to bring the deficit to three, down 21-18. Fisher was able to recover and put it away courtesy of kills from DeBonis, French, and Kiana Walker.

In a similar fashion to the first set, the Cardinals opened strong in the second, maintaining an 8-3 lead courtesy of aces by Kiera Hartpence and Emily Brochey. Refusing to go down without a fight, the Highlanders shrunk the deficit to one, but a 7-3 run at the end of the set for Fisher allowed them to go up 2-0 heading into the third.
The third set displayed the strong offense of the Cardinals, as they rallied off nine straight points, which included four service aces by Brochey. The Cardinals would overwhelm the Highlanders in the third set by a 25-9 margin.

The team totaled 20 aces in the victory, seven coming Young. Young also added seven kills in the win.

Player to Watch: Fisher will have two players to watch this week, after Hartpence was named Empire 8 Rookie of the Week for the third time this season and DeBonis was named Empire 8 Player of the Week.
Over four matches last week, Hartpence saw playing time in 16 sets, recording 71 digs to only three receiving errors. She had 20 digs in the first match of the week against Brockport before a season-high 23 digs in the season finale against the University of Rochester. Across the four matches, Hartpence racked up 11 assists and five service aces.

Meanwhile, DeBonis had a double-double in each match to total 55 kills and 66 digs in the four matches played last week. The week started with a strong 15 kill, 23 dig performance against Regionally ranked SUNY Brockport. Against Fredonia, DeBonis hit 0.353 with 14 kills and defensively tallied 13 digs. In two games on Saturday, DeBonis had 26 kills and 30 digs, adding four assists, a service ace, and two blocking assists.

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