Volleyball: Knights Stay Hot, Win 2-of-3 in Four Days

BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD -- Following a straight-set victory against Howard Community College on September 11 on the road, the Knights continued to stay hot on Thursday with another sweep, this time against the Anne Arundel Community College.

The victory also marks the third time in five years that the Knights have won their home-opener.

CCBC Essex used runs of 7-0 and 8-0 en route to a 25-7 first set win.

"We came in prepared for the game and we executed our game plan," said head coach Geoffrey Koger.

The match began with a point for the Riverhawks, however, the Knights took control after a quick side out.   

The Riverhawks (0-7, 0-6 Maryland JUCO) got stronger as the night progressed and were more competitive down the stretch, as they fell 25-13 and 25-12 in subsequent sets.

Freshman Whitney Chappell (Baltimore Polytechnic) led the Knights with 23 of the teams 24 assists.

Sophomore Maggie Williams (Loch Raven) had eight kills and freshman Sabrina Bradford (Hereford) had six.

"There's always things we can work on," said Koger. "We had some really bad free balls, some missed serves, and a bunch of hit errors. There's a lot we can improve on.

"Were a pretty fun team and it was our first home game so that adds to a lot of excitement. It's been a few weeks since [we last played at home]. I think they had a lot of confidence going in because it was our first [home] game."

Freshman Ann Benzinger (Dulaney) added four kills and five service aces in the match.

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Over the Weekend

The Knights traveled to Lincroft, N.J. on Saturday for the Brookdale Volleyball Invitational.

After dropping a hard fought first match to Raritan Valley Community College in five sets – the team's fifth five-set match in their first nine games – the Knights swept the host school in its second match of the day.

Benzinger had 29 kills, Williams 23 and Bradford 19 in the two matches. Bradford added five service aces and 18 digs in eight sets.

Chappel had 78 assists for the two matches and sophomore Kelli Standiford (Loch Raven) had 32 digs.

*This article was contributed to by Oluwaseun Adeniji