Last weekend, the Huskies traveled to Hamilton, NY to face Colgate, Stony Brook and the University of Buffalo. UConn continued their impressive run, reaching a six-game winning streak.
The team pulled an unlikely comeback against Colgate on Friday, returning from a 2-0 deficit to take the victory in the fifth set. The two teams played an intense first set, but due to several early service errors, the Huskies lost 27-25. The Raiders took charge of the second and asserted their dominance in the beginning. They won 25-20. UConn continued to fight and despite Colgate taking an early lead in the third, the Huskies came out on top 25-23. Colgate came out with force in the fourth looking to win the game. Despite the Raiders taking an early lead, UConn proved themselves a fierce opponent, winning the set once more and taking the game to a fifth.
This time, it was the Huskies that came with power. Strong performances from freshman Grace Maria, redshirt sophomore Aubrey Rome and senior Duga Kutlu guaranteed the Huskies’ comeback. They took the set 15-8. Junior Emma Werkmeister once again proved herself an integral part of the team, as she led the squad in kills and aces. Returning after missing the last two games, graduate student Taylor Pannell also put in a great performance, leading the team in blocks. This was the first time since 2008 that the Huskies have started a season 4-0.
Next, the team took on Stony Brook, taking their fifth consecutive win by 3-1. The Huskies took an early 9-6 lead into the first set. With a strong performance from UConn and many errors from the Sea Wolves, the Huskies took the first set 25-20. The team continued to have a strong performance with three early kills scored by Pannell. The two groups fought back and forth until Stony Brook took the second set by 25-23, balancing out the score. Both squads started the third set strong, though both were plagued with errors. The Sea Wolves took a small early lead of 15-14, however, after several kills scored by Werkmeister, Pannell and junior Jess Perry, the Huskies took the set. In the fourth, back-to-back kills from Rome and several errors from the Sea Wolves gave the Huskies the lead. Werkmeister brought two more additional kills to win the game in the fourth set.
To close out the weekend, the Huskies played the University of Buffalo, winning 3-1 on Sunday. The Huskies were plagued by errors and suffered from a strong offensive performance from the Bulls in the first set. Buffalo took the lead 15-10 early on. UConn battled back to a 20-20 score after kills from Werkmeister, Rome and Pannell. Following several errors from the Bulls and a strong performance by Pannell, the Huskies took the first set 25-22. The second started off evenly matched, however, after several aces from the Bulls they were able to gain a five-point lead. UConn then tied the game at 21 points. Despite several Blocks from Rome and freshman Loren Winn and consecutive kills from Werkmeister, the Bulls took the second set and tied the game 1-1. The Huskies came back strong and dominated the third set taking it 25-14. UConn took the lead in the fourth set and acquired what seemed like a comfortable lead of 14-7. The Bulls, however, were not yet willing to give up and cut the lead down to only two points. Nonetheless, the Huskies welcomed the pressure and took the set 25-20, winning their sixth consecutive game this season.
The start of this season has already proved one of the more successful that the Huskies have seen in the past couple of years, especially in comparison to the eight total wins of last season.