Quinnipiac’s volleyball team couldn’t wait to take the court to face Fairleigh Dickinson. In fact, the Bobcats wanted to play a minute before they were supposed to.
“We showed some really good passion and steadiness and we are an enthusiastic team,” Quinnipiac head coach Robin Lamott Sparks said. “Our sport is incredibly exciting and competitive. Our passion helps with that.”
That passion helped the Bobcats (6-17, 4-5 NEC) outlast the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights (9-16, 4-6 NEC) in a five-set thriller Sunday at Burt Kahn Court, 30-28, 25-20, 22-25, 16-25, 15-13.
Graduate student Amanda Armstrong led the team with 17 kills, including the one that sealed the Bobcat victory from a Kayla Lawler pass, just as Sparks planned.
“I told them at the timeout, ‘This is what’s going to happen: there’s going to be a perfect pass, it is going to go correctly to Kayla, Kayla’s going to have a great touch, and Amanda you’re going to put the ball down’ and it is exactly what happened,” Sparks said.
Armstrong confirmed her coach had perfectly predicted the play, but still credited Lawler for the well-placed set.
“Coach gets some credit but my setter (Lawler) definitely gets a lot of credit,” Armstrong said. “It was a perfect ball.”
Lawler, a junior setter, recorded a double-double with 42 assists and 16 digs. Lawler registered 18 assists in the first two sets alone, but injured her wrist early in the third set on a diving play.
“It was a little disconcerting to see your setter go down and not sure if she’s going to get back up,” Sparks said of Lawler.
But Lawler continued to help the team and made sure her injury would not hurt the team’s overall performance.
“Our passing was definitely up at the net,” Armstrong said. “Whenever we have a good pass to the net then my setter is able to run me and establish seams for all the other hitters so our passing I felt was great.”
Junior outside hitter Kelby Carey had a double-double of her own with 10 kills and 12 digs while sophomore Logan Riker led the team with 31 digs. Riker increases her team-lead in digs to 380, 102 more than Carey, who is second on the team.
Armstrong’s winning hit gave the Bobcats their first five-set victory on the season. They had lost their last five five-set matches, including Oct. 3 at FDU when they lost the final set 15-11.
