UNC Wilmington’s volleyball team kicked off parent weekend with its first Colonial Athletic Association match, losing to Northeastern (11-4, 1-0), three sets to one.

The defending CAA champions did not look fazed, expecting everyone’s best effort coming into conference play. UNCW held leads at one point or another in all four games, but always found itself in need of a rally to claim the set.

“I told our girls that’s what it feels like to play with a target on its back,” said UNCW coach Amy Bambenek. “We made too many unforced errors on our side.”

The first set started well for the Seahawks (10-3, 0-1) when Northeastern’s opening serve hit directly into the net. Though they found themselves trailing later, UNCW’s squad rallied to claim the set 25-19.

Sophomore Maddy Kline led the first set with seven kills on 10 total attacks. Kline ended the match leading the Seahawks in kills with 17.

UNCW ran into trouble in the second set, at one point trailing 20-12.

An energetic rally pulled the Seahawks within two points before a timeout by Huskie head coach Ken Nichols allowed Northeastern to regroup and claim the second match, 25-22.

The third set was highly competitive. Neither team lead by more than four points. As the set wore on, Northeastern was able to pull away from the Seahawks, again with a 25-22 score.

It was much of the same in the fourth set. Northwestern paced UNCW throughout, leading by as much as six points.

Again, UNCW was able to rally and cut the deficit in half, but it was too much to overcome and the match was claimed by the Huskies.

“Being able to get points with your serve is the name of the game and we were unable to do that efficiently tonight,” said Bambenek. 

It’s CAA play here on out for the Seahawks as Hofstra comes to Hanover Hall on Sunday, after which starts a seven game road trip for UNCW. Match time for Sunday is scheduled for 12:30 p.m.