Blue Volleyball Earns NEWMAC Sweep Over Wheaton

NORTON, Mass. -- The Wheaton College women's volleyball team fell to Wellesley College in straight sets by scores of 22-25, 16-25 and 17-25 on Tuesday night at Emerson Gymnasium in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) action.

The win improves Wellesley to 13-2 overall, with a 2-0 mark in NEWMAC play. Wheaton dips to 8-7, 1-1 in the NEWMAC with the loss. 

Wellesley juniors Caitlin Laughlin and Sydney Carfagno combined for 14 of the visitors 28 kills on the night to lead the attack. Carfagno also added four service aces, 11 digs and one block assist.

Senior Hilary Ayers facilitated the Wellesley offense with 15 assists, while classmate Traci Hamanaka had eight digs and two assists.

For Wheaton, sophomore outside hitter Arieanne Creighton led all student-athletes with ten kills (.227 hitting percentage). Freshman Colleen Koen added six putaways and sophomore Deirdre Wilson contributed two kills, a game-high 20 assists, and four digs.

The Lyons held a 14-10 advantage near the halfway mark of the first set before Wellesley stormed back with a 14-8 run to claim a 1-0 lead in the match. The Blue capitalized on two attacking errors with the score deadlocked at 18-18 and received a pair of kills from senior Kellyn O'Brady and Laughlin after a Wheaton timeout to eventually close out the first set victory. In total, the opening set of the match featured eight ties and four lead changes.

Wheaton's attack posted its best effort in set number two as the Lyons put down eight kills on four errors and 27 swings for a .148 hitting percentage. Koen had three putaways to pace the offense in the second stanza. Wellesley erased an 8-8 tie with a 17-8 run to seize all momentum. The Blue used seven service aces and nine kills including two apiece by O'Brady, first-year Brooke Fieldman and senior Kira Jordan to highlight the offense in the second set.

Carfagno guided Wellesley in set three with four kills as the Blue compiled a .310 hitting percentage on a game-high 12 kills, three errors and 29 swings. Defensively, the visitors also notched a set-high 14 digs receiving five alone from Hamanaka.

Wellesley hosts Babson College in NEWMAC action on Thursday, September 26 at 7 p.m. on Ovarian Cancer Awareness Night. Wheaton welcomes Mount Holyoke College to campus  for a conference clash onSaturday, September 28 at 1 p.m.