For Immediate Release
October 31, 2009
Wellesley Sports Information
Wellesley Volleyball Downs Smith, 3-0
WELLESLEY, Mass. – Wellesley volleyball celebrated Senior Day this afternoon with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-12, 25-19) sweep of Smith College. The win lifts the Blue to 20-9 for the season, 7-2 in the NEWMAC, good enough for the seed in the conference tournament. Smith drops to 7-18 overall, 3-6 in conference play.
Wellesley jumped to a 9-4 lead in set one with a four-point serving run from senior libero Naomi Iwata (Seattle, WA). Smith trimmed the lead to 11-9 with a stuff block from Stephanie Bleyendaal (Boston, MA) and Shakwana Etienne (West Orange, NJ), but the Blue answered with another four-point run, courtesy of senior Alice Cummings (Tallahassee, FL) for a 15-9 advantage. Despite a late charge by the Pioneers, Wellesley held on for a 25-20 win.
In set two the squads traded sideouts until 8-7, when Wellesley scored seven straight points, highlighted by two kills each from Taylor King (Walnut Creek, CA) and Elizabeth Campbell (Solona Beach, CA), for a 15-7 lead. Another five-point rally, this one sparked by a kill from Jessica Mullen (Wilmington, DE), stretched the Wellesley lead to 21-9 as the hosts cruised to a 25-12 win.
The Pioneers regrouped for game three, using kills from Bethany Weiss (Windham, NH) and Laurel Belton (San Bernadino, CA) to build an 8-5 lead. Wellesley fought back to knot the score at 9-9, but Smith replied with kills from Weiss and Mikal Minarich (Hobart, IN) to take a 14-11 edge. The Blue once again fought back, tying the game at 16-16 with a kill from Cummings. Two points later, Wellesley broke away for good with a 7-1 run and coasted to a 25-19 victory.
For Smith, Belton led the attack with eight kills, while Minarich and Weiss added six and five, respectively. Lauren Martinez (Phoenix, AZ) and Courtney Faria (Pocasset, MA) combined for 27 assists. Brianne Connizzo (Demarest, NJ) led all players with 14 digs.
For the Blue, Campbell hammered 14 kills on just 17 attempts with no errors for an .824 attack percentage. Cummings added 10 kills and King chipped in seven. Victoria Peng (Diamond Bar, CA) and Isabel Custodio (Powell, OH) split the setting duties, tallying 34 assists between them. Seniors Iwata and Cummings anchored the Blue defense with eight and seven digs, respectively.
Both teams will take the court in the first round of the NEWMAC tournament on Tuesday at 7:00pm, November 3. Wellesley will host the 7th-seeded WPI Engineers, while Smith will play at #3, Springfield. The tournament bracket will be posted later today at the Conference website.