Robert Morris sweeps Sacred Heart in NEC opener

Ian Kidd, Staff Reporter

The Robert Morris women’s volleyball team improved its conference record to 2-0 after defeating Sacred Heart in three sets Saturday afternoon at the Charles L. Sewall Center.

SHU struggled all day, consistently committing errors that allowed RMU to take control of the match. The Pioneers had a total of 35 errors, including five service errors.

“In this conference, most of the time it comes down to who makes the most unforced errors,” head coach Dale Starr said. “They gave us a ton of points.”

Robert Morris played a very clean game compared to their competition, committing 11 less attacking errors than Sacred Heart and 18 less errors overall.

“That’s the way we have to play. We don’t have huge bombers on the outside,” said Starr. “We have to play pretty clean in the serve-pass game. We’re giving ourselves opportunities and we’re forcing teams to make plays to beat us.”

Sophomore right side hitter April Krivoniak played well in the win, posting a total of seven kills to go along with two digs. Standout sophomore Arden Fisher was excellent against Sacred Heart, tallying six kills, two assists and a match leading 24 digs.

Robert Morris went on to win the second contest on Sunday, sweeping the Pioneers with another three set victory.  The Colonials now travel to Central Connecticut to take on the Blue Devils in an NEC matchup with conference title implications.

CCSU was slated second in the preseason coaches poll and defeated RMU in both meetings last year.

“We’re going to try to have a great week of practice and ride it into next weekend and see what we can do,” Starr said. “If we come out 1-1 that’s still going to be okay because that puts us at 3-1 and in good shape.”

The Colonials are feeling very confident after a successful weekend and will look to improve on a hot start in the Northeast Conference October 4 in Connecticut.