NEW LONDON, CONN. – The Wentworth women's volleyball team dropped a pair of non-conference matches on Saturday, losing to UMass Dartmouth, 3-2, before falling to host Coast Guard, 3-0, in a tri-match played on the campus of the US Coast Guard Academy.
Wentworth took the first two sets from UMass Dartmouth by identical 25-23 scores, combing for 27 kills and a hitting percentage or .167. However, the Corsairs came back to take the third set, 25-12, before forcing a deciding set with a 25-16 win in the fourth set. The fifth set saw the Leopards have two chances to win the match, as the Leopards led 14-13 and 15-14. UMass Dartmouth took a 16-15 lead before Wentworth evened the score at 16-all. The Corsairs would score the final two points of the set to win, 18-16, and take a 3-2 match victory.
Junior Julie Bruton (Montgomery, Texas) led Wentworth with 15 kills to go with eight digs, while freshman Michelle Hobbs (Northwood, N.H.) had a team-best 18 digs, along with five kills, while sophomore Julie Rahilly (Nashua, N.H.) had 14 kills, six aces, and 17 digs. Sophomore Rebecca Williams led the team with 40 assists to go with 11 digs.
For UMass Dartmouth, Junior Cami Ascher (Natick, Mass.) and senior Lauren Safioleas (New Bedford, Mass.) had 10 kills each. Senior Eleni Tsaparakis (Norwalk, Conn.) added eight kills while sophomore Jessica Goncalves (New Bedford, Mass.) had 30 assists. Ascher also had five blocks. The Corsairs (17-4) were swept by Coast Guard, 3-0, in the day's first match.
Coast Guard, ranked seventh in the latest New England Coaches' Poll, jumped out to an early lead in the first set against the Leopards and never looked back, taking a 25-6 win in the opening set. The Leopards closed the gap in the second set before falling, 17-25, but the Bears completed the sweep with a 25-9 win in the third set.
Rahilly paced the Leopards (5-14), who return to The Commonwealth Coast Conference play Wednesday night at Salve Regina, with five kills, two aces, and seven digs. Bruton had four kills and seven digs, while Williams had 13 assists.
Freshman Kelsey DePorto (Frankfort, Ill.) led the Bears with nine kills and seven blocks. Classmate Sam Marmolejo (El Paso, Texas) added five kills and a team-high 13 digs and senior Ashley Bullard (Houston, Texas) chipped in with 14 assists. Senior Merritt Anderson (Huntsville, Ala.) had nine digs and three aces for the Bears, who improve to 19-4 after running their win streak to eight.
