Box Score 11/4/23

SCRANTON, Pa. -- The Lackawanna College women's volleyball team had its magical season end on Saturday afternoon, falling to the #20 Harford Community College Fighting Owls 3-0 (25-11, 25-11, 25-17) in the NJCAA Women's Volleyball Division II Mid-Atlantic District Championship at the Lackawanna College Student Union gymnasium.
 
The Falcons (14-10) had won five straight heading into the contest, but ran into a buzz saw, as the Fighting Owls (26-4) used a deadly service game and powerful attacking to push past Lackawanna.
 
After an initial back-and-forth in the first set had it at 3-3, the Owls took advantage of a pair of hitting errors from the Falcons, plus a service ace, to go on a 5-0 run to extend it out to 8-3. An Angelique Fuentes (First Year; Miami, FL) kill ended that run, and both teams traded points again, before Harford again put some distance between itself and Lackawanna. The Fighting Owls led 13-7 when an unforced error from the Falcons gave Harford serve. That was the first point of a 7-0 run for Harford to make it 20-7 in the first set, on their way to a 25-11 first set win.
 
The second set was more of the same, with some tight play in the early going, and the Falcons getting to within 13-8 before the service of Harford took hold. The Fighting Owls again hit another 7-0 run to make it 20-8, and cruised to the 25-11 second set victory to make it 2-0.
 
The third set was a little tighter from both squads, with Lackawanna fighting for every point, and winning several long rallies to stay in the match. Harford built a small five-point lead, once again thanks to its serve and some Falcons' errors, but Lackawanna kept things in that neighborhood for the majority of the set. Lackawanna, trailing 15-7, went on a small run, thanks to an ace from Nadia Toth (First Year; East Benton, PA) and a kill from Gabriela Gomez (First Year; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) and a pair of errors from Harford that made it 15-11. The Owls answered that run with a spurt of their own to get up seven, but the Falcons closed the gap again, taking advantage of a service error and another Toth kill, to make it 21-17. But, the magic would unfortunately run out, as Harford broke serve with a kill, then scored the match's final three points in a row to secure the bid to the national tournament, ending the run for Lackawanna.
 
Lackawanna College finishes the year at 14-10, with its first Region XIX championship since 2006, and its most wins since the 2015 campaign. The Falcons had previously won just two matches in the preceding two seasons combined. The Falcons accomplished all of that with a team made up of only first year players.