Hohnbaum and Grier Lead the Wildcats in 3-0 Loss to #3 Seed Arizona State in NCAA First Round

Friday, December 6

Tempe, Ariz.

8:30 PM ET

University of New Hampshire

18-10,7-3America East

Arizona State

30-2,17-1Big 12

New Hampshire

Arizona St.

Hohnbaum and Grier Lead the Wildcats in 3-0 Loss to #3 Seed Arizona State in NCAA First Round

12/7/2024 12:27:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

TEMPE, Ariz. – The University of New Hampshire volleyball team fell to the #3 seed Arizona State 3-0 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The set scores were 25-17, 25-17, and 25-19.

Junior right-side hitter Meredith Hohnbaum (Indianapolis, Ind) led UNH's attack with nine kills and 10 points. Sophomore middle blocker Rachel Grier (Dublin, Calif.) was next up with seven kills and eight and a half points. UNH used two primary setters as sophomore Jessica Shattles (Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.) led the 'Cats with 12 assists and freshman Ellery Singleton (Menlo Park, Calif) recorded 11. Junior libero/defensive specialist Avery LePore (Franklin, Tenn) and Senior outside hitter Ezgi Karabulut (Ankara, Turkey) led the team with nine digs a piece.

"I am really excited for the future of our program," head coach Christopher Feliciano said, "We have some really resilient players, the two sitting next to me [Meredith Hohnbaum and Rachel Grier] did a great job tonight. We have some outstanding talent returning and some outstanding talent coming in . We all buy into the one simple concept that no one is more important than the person on the left."

Set one

ASU began the match with a kill and a block followed by a service error to give UNH its first point of the match. Karabulut and Kaufmann denied the Sun Devils with a block and put the 'Cats down 3-2.
UNH hung around for a while, as the score deficit did not surpass five points until 20-14. In that stretch, Hohnbaum tallied three kills while Grier, Armer, and Serbousek tallied two a piece.
The Sun Devils ran away with set one and came out on top by a score of 25-17.

set two

The Wildcats brought the fight into the beginning of set two as they tied the score at one, two, three, and seven. Hohnbaum and Grier recorded two kills a piece and Armer knocked one down too.
Arizona State took and maintained their lead for the remainder of the set but not without UNH creeping up on them. After being down 16-10 the Wildcats went on a 5-1 run. Attack errors mixed with a Karabulut block and a Hohnbaum kill forced an ASU timeout (17-14).
UNH could not hang on as Arizona State went on an 8-3 run to clinch set two and go up 2-0 in the match (25-17).

Set three

UNH took leads at 2-1, 3-2, and 5-3 early in the third set. They had a response for Arizona State's points as they took another lead at 12-11. Karabulut notched three kills, while Hohnbaum and Grier had one. There were blocks from Armer, Grier, Hohnbaum, and Kaufmann as well.
ASU scored four straight points to go up 15-12. Then after a Hohnbaum kill, they scored another six straight points to go up 21-13.
The Wildcats showed life by going on a 6-1 run but were not able to complete the comeback. Arizona State won set three 25-19 and will move on to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

UNH NOTEBOOK

The Wildcats competed in their eighth NCAA tournament match tonight.
UNH had 46 digs to ASU's 45.
This wraps up an impressive season that included the 'Cats first America East Championship since 2016 and eighth appearance in the NCAA Tournament.