On Tuesday, Oct. 11 Holyoke defeated the NECC Knights in five sets in the Sport and Fitness Center on Haverhill campus.

The Knights lost the first two sets 25-19 and 25-15. The Knights won the next two 25-22 and 25-9 before losing on the decisive set five 15-9.

The game officially started at 6:33 p.m.

In the first set the Knights were quickly down the first two points. The Knights quickly got themselves into the game, but a spike from Heather Walsh of Harwich made it 4-3 in favor of Holyoke.

The Knights tied the game at four, then Holyoke scored the next two points and eventually the Knights did not just tie the game at six but they took the lead in the first set.

It was a good battle in the first set. Both teams were competitive and were looking to take the first set of best of five sets.

The Knights tied the game at 16. The Knights called a time out when they where losing by a point they were down 19-18.

Holyoke went on a 6-1 run on the Knights to finish off the first set as Holyoke took set one 25-19 from the Knights.

Just like the first set, the Knights were down early in the second set.

The Knights came back to take a 4-3 lead. They then increased that lead by three.

Holyoke came back to tie the game at nine, but the Knights scored the very next point to make it 10-9.

The game was 14 to 11 and the Knights were down by three when Coach Mike Pelosi of Haverhill decided to call a time out.

The Knights then were losing by six when miscommunication between Ashley Martinez of Lawrence and Ashley Dominguez of Lawrence let the ball drop right in front of them.

“I do believe communication plays a really big role playing the sport of volleyball in general not only in our team but just in general volleyball is a team sport and without communicating you really don’t know where the ball is going to,” said NECC women’s volleyball player Eliany Dejesus of Lowell after the game. “ …We are still working, I feel like we didn’t communicate in the beginning because we might of just gone in our heads and just didn’t communicate … other than that our girls really pulled through and stared getting their act together and I really believe they tried their hardest to win today even though we took a lost it was a w(in) to me,”

The Knights were down by eight when they were losing 20 to 12.

After the time out the Knights were looking to regroup but it wasn’t enough as they lost the third set 25-15.

“So here is the challenge that we had is consistency, we have a challenge in consistency that we all acknowledge that. Communication is important, we acknowledge we should be calling the ball all the

team so we do that but then everything it seems fine but I think sometimes athletes conclude all right we don’t have any communication problem …. (it’s) is the same thing with positioning…” said coach Pelosi. .

In the third set the Knights were losing 3-2 when a spike by Martinez went barely in and she was pumped up to tie the game at three.

After the time out the Knights immediately took off. The Knights went on 11-2 run to tie the game at 17. You could see on the players’ faces the excitement and the energy..

The Knights were then losing 20-19 when Holyoke called a time out.

At the end of the third set it got pretty intense. The game was a nail biter back and forth game. The Knights took the lead late in the game to make it 23-22.

The Knights made it 24-22 and they were one point away from forcing a set four and they did just that beating Holyoke 25-23 in the third set.

In the fourth set the Knights scored the first two points before Holyoke scored. The Knights on the fourth set started off on a 8-3 run. The Knights increased their lead to six when they were up 11 to 5. The Knights increased their lead to nine and they were totally dominate in the fourth set.

A spike by Martinez made it 18-9. The Knights increased their lead by 13, they were up 22-9 and the Knights held on for a 25-9 win to force a set five.

On a decisive set five every point is huge for both teams and instead of 25 whoever scores 15 wins the set and wins the game. The first team that scores eight points both teams swap benches and they rotate until the set is over.

Holyoke started the fifth set on a 6-2 run on the Knights.

The Knights were eventually down by seven. Holyoke made it 13-5 and eventually the Knights lost the fifth set 15 to 6.

The Knights come back down two sets to none, but fell short as they lost three sets to two against Holyoke.

I asked Coach Pelosi about the resilience that they had coming back from two set to none and almost winning the game, they never quit, they fought and fought until the end.

“I think it shows personal growth. In our last home game we didn’t have that level of grit so I think this shows that they are willing to hang in there and fight and if you look at a lot of the top performance teams ,they’re not  necessarily winning by a giant score margin but they had that level of grit and they stick it in with a lot of adversity… in situations similar level teams, slightly better teams, so I felt way better about today’s game then some of the game prior early in the season. It really made me feel a lot better today,” Coach Pelosi said.