Blue Volleyball Sweeps Coast Guard to Celebrate Senior night

WELLESLEY, Mass. – Wellesley volleyball celebrated senior night with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-18, 25-21) sweep of Coast Guard Academy on Tuesday night at Keohane Sports Center.  The win lifts the Blue to 26-4 for the season, 9-0 in the NEWMAC. The Bears drop to 21-7, 5-4 in conference play.

All six seniors contributed to the win, combining for 27 digs, 24 kills, four blocks, and two aces as the Blue .295 while holding the visitors to .101 at the net.

Wellesley edged to a 10-5 lead in the opening set on a 5-point serving run from Maddie Koh. Coast Guard's Kelsey DePorto stopped the run with kill down the line, but the Blue pushed to a 19-10 advantage with two kills from Kellyn O'Brady and one each from Alixandra Binney and Kira Jordan. The Bears made a late surge, courtesy of two swings from Ashley Dumont, but the Blue held on for a 25-17 win.

The Bears inched to an early lead in set two, but Wellesley quickly rebounded to take an 11-5 lead with two aces from Sydney Carfagno and kills from Megan Mills and O'Brady. The Bears responded with a run of their own, using another Dumont kills and two aces from Susan West to cut the advantage to 12-11. But Wellesley broke away for good on an O'Brady serving run, opening a 19-13 lead in route to the 25-18 win.

Set three followed the same script as set two, as the Bears jumped to an early advantage before another Carfagno run from the service line opened a 15-7 lead for the Blue. Coast Guard gradually battled back with strong net play from Rebekah Muller and solid serving from Samantha Marmolejo and Emily Gilland, eventually trimming the lead to 19-17. The squads traded sideouts before a Courtney Lang kill and Coast Guard error sealed the 25-21 win for the Blue. 

Wellesley's O'Brady led all players with 11 kills, recording just one error to hit .455 on the night. Carfagno added 10 kills, four aces and a pair of blocks, while Mills picked up nine kills, hitting .667 with two blocks. Lang rounded out the Blue offense with six kills, hitting .417, while Caitlin Laughlin added a pair of blocks. Traci Hamanaka recorded a match-high of 18 digs, while Koh recorded 19 assists and Hilary Ayers added 16.

For Coast Guard, Kelsey DePorto totaled nine kills, while Rebekah Muller added eight. Three players recorded five digs each (Maggie Hine, Marmolego, Muller), while Hine also dished out 19 assists and added three aces. 

Both teams will close out the NEWMAC regular season on Saturday at 1:00pm. Wellesley will travel to Springfield for a winner-take-all match for the top seed in the upcoming NEWMAC tournament, while Coast Guard hosts MIT in a match that will likely decide the fourth and fifth seeds in the tournament. 

Wellesley Volleyball Class of 2014