Moon Township, Pa. – Robert Morris University head coach Dale Starr captured the 100th Northeast Conference (NEC) victory of his career as the Colonials completed another three-win week tonight in four sets against Sacred Heart (25-20, 25-21, 22-25, 25-23) at the UPMC Events Center.
Starr, the winningest head coach in program history, is the first to reach 100 in NEC play. His Robert Morris (22-3, 12-0 NEC) side was up to the task against second-place Sacred Heart (14-11, 9-3 NEC), as it converted at a .313 rate with 150 swings and posted 65 digs and 11.0 total team blocks defensively.
One night after breaking the school record for service aces in a career, Emma Granger had another eye-popping night. The junior middle blocker surpassed her one-day-old career-high of 20 kills with 22 this evening, becoming just the seventh different player to reach that number in a match. She achieved that with a .455 hitting percentage, adding eight blocks (one solo) and a service aces for a career-best 27.5 points.
Maria Alfano (14) and Lauren Kolenik (10) joined Granger in double-figures for kills, and Alyssa Hudak came one shy of making it four. Whitney Brown posted a 55-assist, 10-dig double-double – her 10th of the season – while Erika Wilt led all players with 22 digs.
Trailing 11-9 in the opening frame, RMU took control with a 9-3 run. Alfano closed the stretch with back-to-back kills, forcing a Pioneer timeout, but that did nothing to slow the hosts down. The Colonials upped their lead to 22-17 with a Granger kill, and finished it off at 25-20 after Kolenik found the floor.
The teams traded the first 18 points of the second set before a 7-2 surge put RMU ahead, 16-11. The lead grew to 20-13 with consecutive Alfano kills and reached eight with another Kolenik point. SHU managed to pull within three at the late stages of the frame, but Granger finished it off at 25-21 to give the Colonials a 2-0 match advantage.
The Pioneers responded with a stunner of a third stanza, erasing an 18-11 deficit with 14 of the next 18 points to force a fourth set. That frame began with a RMU 5-1 run, but SHU answered with a 7-3 rally to knot it at 8-8.
The Colonials withstood the Pioneer surge and struck back with an 8-3 stretch of their own, with Skylar Clements providing a pair of points in the run. SHU turned a five-point deficit into a two-point one at 19-17 to force a RMU timeout, and kept pace with the hosts to make it 23-22 in the closing stages.
Granger recorded her 22nd kill of the evening to force match point, but Julia Murawinski again answered with a point of her own. Alfano would make sure the Pioneers weren't given a second chance, as she finished off a Brown set to keep the Colonials unbeaten in NEC action.
Granger's 27.5 points are tied for the second most in a RMU match, 1.5 off the record of 29.0 set by Rachel Leitch (Sept. 9, 2003 vs. Duquesne). In the Colonials' three-win week, the two-time All-NEC First Team selection averaged 5.00 kills and 1.90 blocks per set while hitting at a .500 clip over 98 swings.
Starr's 100th victory is also the 299th in his coaching career, making him one shy of reaching the 300-win milestone. He has 153 wins at Robert Morris, 96 at McNeese, and 50 at Mississippi University of Women.
This year's Colonials now have the fourth most wins in program single-season history, only trailing the 2001 (30-7), 2002 (27-12), 2003 (23-12), and 2004 (23-9) sides.
Robert Morris can clinch its first NEC regular-season title since 2008 with a victory in any of its next four matches. The Colonials will try to accomplish the feat next weekend at the UPMC Events Center, starting on Friday, Nov. 8 at 7:00 p.m. against Central Connecticut.
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