Elina Huffman ‘29
Last Friday, our women’s volleyball team had their senior night. They competed against the Pennsylvanian team, Lafayette College. So far this season, the overall record for the Crusaders is 13-15, and the conference record for them is 6-9. In comparison, the overall record for Lafayette is 7-18, and their conference record is 1-14. This senior night celebrated two graduating seniors, Lily Eigner and Georgia Murphy. The Holy Cross Crusaders absolutely swept for their senior night celebration, with them winning three sets straight.
The Crusaders had a commanding start, 5-1, thanks to sophomore Emma Sorensen, and an ace by Georgia Murphy. Outside hitter Sorensen had multiple consecutive kills to help expand the starting lead. Throughout the first set, our home team kept the lead. Lafayette was only within striking distance of our score once, where they were only 3 points off. Sorensen, and freshmen right side, Kat Teepee, kept the front row strong with a combined eight kills, which is spectacular! Another player that held down the front row was junior middle blocker, Lacey Murphy. She had two blocks and two kills. The Crusaders went on to win the set with a score of 25-15. At the beginning of the second set, there were a couple of good rallies between the two teams. Lacey Murphy and Teepee had tremendous kills to keep the Crusaders in the lead. Sophomore middle blocker Kay Harris got in on the action by making crucial blocks to bring the final score of the second set to 25-18. During the third set, both the Holy Cross Crusaders and the Lafayette University Leopards were going back and forth scoring points. Neither team was able to establish a strong lead upon one another. Halfway through the set, the Leopards took the lead, but the Crusaders quickly responded with Murphy, Sorensen and Teepee all having kills to get our team back in the lead. Close to the end of the set, Teepee had three kills. Additionally, Harris and Eigner both made key blocks to finish off the set with a score of 25-22.
One of the seniors that was celebrated on Friday night was Lily Eigner. Lily is from Edina, Minnesota, and her main position is outside hitter. During the game against Lafayette, she played in each set and had seven kills, which is really impressive! Eigner’s hitting percentage was 0.83% for this game. Lily has not only had an outstanding season with the Crusaders this year, but has also had a really solid career. Her impressive all-time stats show that offensively, she had 87 kills, 4 assists, and has participated in 47 matches. Defensively, Eigner has had 91 digs, 6 block assists, and has prevented 98 points. Her spectacular career stats and 3-time Patriot League Academic Honor prove that she is not only an incredible player, but also a true student-athlete .
Another graduating senior that was celebrated last Friday was Georgia Murphy, who is originally from Plano, Texas. She previously played volleyball at Sacred Heart University. Her main position on the volleyball team is outside hitter. Although she has only played for Holy Cross for a year, her career stats are remarkable! Murphy has played in 27 matches and has 57 kills. She has averaged around 0.69 kills per set. Another excellent stat that Georgia has is scoring 25 aces throughout her career, which is no easy feat. Defensively, Murphy had a whopping 205 digs, bringing her digs-per-set average up to around 2.47. Georgia had 7 impressive blocks to close out her career with the Holy Cross Crusaders, saving us from getting scored on multiple times.
Lily and Georgia have both had amazing careers with the Crusaders, and have most certainly made a difference on the team. They are going to be missed, but we can’t wait to see what their futures hold after graduating this year!
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