Naz holds off St. Ignatious; advance to Final Eight

<p>After losing the first set, Nazareth turned it around and won the last two sets to claim the St. Ignatius Sectional and set a Super-Sectional rematch of 2018 with St. Francis.</p> <p>In front of a packed house at St. Ignatius, Nazareth pulled off the win, thanks to  <strong>Katie Hurta (2022, 6'0, S/OH)</strong>. Despite having a tough first set that included six hitting errors. she tallied 22 kills in the match. <strong>Izzy Decker (2021, 5'10, OH) </strong>added 7 kills. </p> <p>St. Ignatius was lead by <strong>Mckenzie Washington (2021, 5'10, OH) </strong> with 11 kills, and <strong>Katherine Randall (2021, 5'9, OH)</strong> followed with 9 kills.</p> <p>Set one was a calamity of errors for the Nazareth Roadrunners as they had 12 errors of various shapes and sizes (hitting, blocking, service errors) to compare with St. Ignatius nine total errors with a fair share of them coming after gaining a five-point lead at 11-16. St. Ignatius Wolfpack rode out the set to a 25-20 win. </p> <p>Nazareth started set two with three hitting errors, then followed it up with four kills, pulling within two at 5-7. The set was a virtual tie after that through 21-21 before Naz took over after a Wolfpack hitting error followed by a Naz ace and a Hurta kill, set two ended at 25-22.</p> <p>Set three was a game of strategy as Nazareth head coach Melissa Masterson called a time out up 16-13, adjusting the offense so Hurta hit form the right of the net, instead of the left side. This pushed them though to 20-14 when Coach Erik Eastman of  St. Ignatius called a  time out of their own. they made the adjustment, but too late in the match as Naz won 25-18. </p> <p>St. Ignatius finished the season at  20-16 while Nazareth moves on with a record of 26-7 and faces Super-Sectional host, St. Francis on Friday at 6 pm.</p>