For Immediate Release
November 4, 2008
Wellesley Sports Information
Wellesley Volleyball Advances to NEWMAC Semifinals with Win Over Wheaton
WELLESLEY, Mass. – The Wellesley College volleyball team swept visiting Wheaton College, 3-0, in a NEWMAC Championship quarterfinal match at Wellesley College. The #2-seeded Blue improve to 25-6 and advance to Friday's semifinals with a 7:00pm match against #3 MIT. The Lyons end the 2008 campaign with a 13-20 mark.
Wheaton took an early 3-1 lead in the first set, but the Blue battled back for a 6-3 advantage, off of a serving run from Emily Peters (Temescal Valley, CA). The rest of the set was a back-and-forth affair, with neither team leading by more than three points until the Blue took an 18-14 lead on a block from Jessica Duff (Milton, Abingdon, UK). The teams traded sideouts until Wellesley put away the match, 25-20, on a kill from Amanda Duritsch (Troy, OH).
The second set was all Wellesley, as the Blue jumped out to 12-2 lead. Wheaton got kills from Liana Merrill (Northwood, NK) and Irina Iokina (Danielson, CT) to cut the lead to 12-4, but Welleley used a seven-point serving run from Duff and three kills from Alice Cummings (Tallahassee, FL) to take the set, 25-7.
In the third set, the Blue built an 11-4 advantage off of six Wheaton miscues and then opened a 23-10 lead backed by four kills from Cummings and two from Heather Mellquist (Baltimore, OH). Wheaton picked up a kill from Lauren Kraus (Westboro, MA) and added an attack error from Wellesley to narrow the gap to 23-12, but the Blue closed out the set with kills from Samantha Du (Houston, TX) and Mellquist for a 25-13 win and a 3-0 match sweep.
Kraus and Merrill led Wheaton at the net with seven kills apiece. Miranda Howitt (San Francisco, CA) added three kills, and Kaitlyn Stokes (Tewksbury, MA) chipped in two. Emily Davisson (Carpinteria, CA) recorded 10 digs, followed by Kristen Hunt (Milford, CT) and Howitt with five each. Becca Rose (Sudbury, MA) captained the Lyons offense with 14 assists.
As a team, Wellesley hit .348 for the match, led by Cummings with 10 kills, and Mellquist and Duff with nine apiece. Peters led all players with 12 digs, followed by Duff with 10. Setter Victoria Peng (Diamond Bar, Calif.) tallied a match-high 38 assists.
The Blue will play their semifinal match at Springfield at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, while the host and #1-seeded Pride will face #4 Coast Guard at 5:00 p.m. The winners meet in the NEWMAC championship match at 4:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon.