LINCOLN, RI- Competing in the Community College of Rhode Island women's volleyball invitational, the Fighting Owls split their two matches that were played on day one of the tournament.

Howard 3 - Harford 0
The Fighting Owls traveled 333 miles on a bus just to start the tournament against cross-town rivals Howard in a rematch of the conference game they competed in several weeks earlier. While Harford won that match in a 5-set thriller, on this day it was the Dragons who emerged victorious.

Harford found themselves down a set early after a tough 25-21 loss in the first game. Unfortuantely, this was the closest the Fighting Owls got to winning a set as they lost the second one 25-16 and the third 25-19. 

Julia Gatch led the team with 5 kills while Savannah Meyers chipped in 3 kills and a block. Kyning Tillinghast provided an efficient outing for Harford as she put away 4 kills on just 10 attempts and no errors along with a solo block. Ultimately, the team was just not able to defeat the Dragons in their first match of the invitational.

Harford 3 - NHTI 0
After a couple hours of rest from their first match, the Fighting Owls came back with a vengence to defeat NHTI in straight sets. Harford dominated the first set by the score of 25-12 and then cruised in the next two sets with matching 25-20 scores.

The Fighting Owls rebounded nicely in their second match of the day led by Meyers' dominant 11 kill performance along with 8 digs.

Libero Rebekah Hanshaw also had a nice bounceback game as she recorded 18 digs and setter Hannah Rousey almost doubled her amount of assists from the previous match, accumulating 27 against NHTI. Tillinghast continued her effective play with 7 kills and 0 errors on 13 attempts.

The Fighting Owls used their height advantage well in this match as they finished with 6 solo blocks and 10 assists.


The split puts the Fighting Owls record at 11-2 on the year and will look to improve upon that in day two of the tournament with a morning match against Northern Essex slated first.