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River Hawks fall to UNH in straight sets

Photo by George DeLuca/Connector
Tyler O’Keefe
Connector Staff

UMass Lowell and UNH took to the court for the second time this season Friday night. Just like the first time these two played back in October, the victory went to the Wildcats.

UNH dominated from the start, winning the first set 25 to 15. They followed up the first set with a 25 to 10 victory in the second.

Just like the previous meeting between these teams UMass Lowell lost 3 sets to 0; falling in the third set 25 to 12.

UNH is a well prepared, and dominant team in this conference. The America East conference gives Coach Provanzano’s team a feel for what kind of mental and physical preparation it will take to be successful.

After the game Provanzano said, “With the transition to Division I we knew we were going to have a lot of challenges and we’re actually doing a pretty good job. We’re very young, so we anticipated a lot of tough matches and we just continue to talk to the girls about getting better everyday and they are doing that.”

This is the type of game that the five freshmen on the team can learn from to benefit their careers going forward.

Haley Shimon has a bright future going forward for the River Hawks. She had 204 kills heading into this game which leads the River Hawks, and added nine more giving her 213 on the season. Shimon is a spark plug for this young River Hawk team, as she brings her, intensity, heart, and great efforts to every game.

When asked about how Division I was treating Shimon compared to her previous competition she said, “The tempo is definitely a lot quicker than what I’ve played in I’ve always played very competitive club volleyball, so I wasn’t shell shocked by the competition.”

When asked about what this team has to look forward too Shimon said, “I’m one of five freshmen, and all of us have gotten a great amount of playing time along with our upperclassmen. Going forward we have our freshness to look forward to, and we’ve all started playing and ready to build on that for the next couple years. We have a lot of great recruits coming in who are definitely ready to come take us to the next level.”

The team has three straight home games to end the season against Hartford, Albany and Binghamton.             

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