Boston College Volleyball Earns First Ever Postseason Victory, Defeats Delaware State in Round 1 of NIVC

Boston College hosted Delaware State today in the first round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship, the first time the Eagles have hosted a postseason game. 10 aces and some really impressive defensive plays bolstered the Eagles, who won the game in straight sets.

The Eagles jumped to a 3-0 lead to start the first set, but a couple of our of bounds balls and big blocks from Delaware State helped the Lady Hornets to build a lead. As the first set went on, the teams continued to trade leads, largely staying within a couple points of each other. Delaware State was close to winning the set at 24-22, but BC scored 2 straight points to tie things up at 24.

The points went back and forth after that, with BC successfully defending multiple set points before a Delaware State hit into the net put BC in set point position. The Eagles scored the final point on their first try, and took set 1 by a score of 28-26.

Delaware State served first in the second set, but Clare Naughton hit it back to ensure BC would score the first point again. The teams then settled back into trading points and leads, much like in the first set, but before long the Lady Hornets jumped out to an 8-4 lead.

The Eagles then went on a scoring run of their own, and an ace from Gabby McCaa combined with 2 straight points from Katrina Jensen tied the game and 8 and then gave BC a 9-8 edge. The Eagles continued to build that lead, and a beautiful block from Amaka Chukwujekwu made it 11-8 BC. The Eagles continued to dominate from there, and won set 2 by a score of 25-16.

The Lady Hornets scored the first point of the third set after the ball made contact with the net on a BC block. To nobody’s surprise, the set then fell into both teams trading points back and forth, although the Eagles largely managed to maintain a 3-4 point lead as the game went on.

Naughton put BC up 19-13 with BC’s 10th ace of the game, but Delaware State followed with a scoring run to cut BC’s lead down to 2. The Eagles built their lead back up, and led 24-19, then 24-20, then 24-21, but Chukwujekwu finally scored the match point to earn BC a sweep win with a 25-21 victory in the final set.

The Eagles will face the winner of UConn and North Carolina A&T in the next round of play.