Wellesley Cruises to Victory Over Mount Holyoke

WELLESLEY, Mass. -- Led by Sydney Carfagno's ninth double-double of the season, Wellesley College volleyball rolled by Mount Holyoke, 3-0, on Tuesday night at Keohane Sports Center. The win lifts the Blue to 10-5 for the year, 3-2 in NEWMAC. The Lyons drop to 2-13 overall, 0-6 in the conference. 

Carfagno led all players with 14 digs to go along with 12 kills on 21 error-free swings. Caitlin Laughlinadded 11 kills, followed by Courtney Lang with six, and Lindsey Menichella and Brooke Fieldman with five kills a piece. Maddie Koh captained a solid offensive outing for the Blue, with 34 assists in the win. The hosts hit .323 on the night. 

Emma Sweeting tallied eight kills to lead the visitors, while Rebecca Bland recorded three kills and Hannah Laytner and Kaleen Iwema added two each. Natalie Lyon notched 12 digs to anchor the Lyon defense, while also recording ten assists in the loss. 

Wellesley broke a 3-all tie early in the first set to race out to leads of 9-4 at the time of the first Mount Holyoke timeout and 15-6 when the Lyons called their second timeout. Following their second timeout, Mount Holyoke rallied to close the gap to 17-11 as a pair of kills by Sweeting on either side of a Wellesley error cut the deficit to six. However, the Mount Holyoke deficit would remain at six points or more for the remainder of the set, as the Blue closed out the 25-17 victory in the opening game. 

In set two, Wellesley stormed out to a 5-0 advantage, eventually holding leads of 11-2 and 22-6 as they made easy work of the Lyons in a 25-7 set two victory.

The Blue continued to roll in the third and final set, again racing out to an early advantage. Leading 11-4, the Blue fought off a Mount Holyoke rally that cut the lead to 11-7, eventually growing the lead back to seven points, at 18-11, following a kill from Carfagno. The Blue then scored seven of the final eight points in the match, capped by the final kill of the night from Carfagno, to take the third set 25-12 and the match 3-0. 

The Blue will welcome Mass.-Boston for their next match on Friday at 7:00 PM in non-conference action. Mount Holyoke will play at a tri-match hosted by Salve Regina on Saturday. The Lyons will play Salve Regina at 1:00 PM before taking on Roger Williams at 3:00 PM.