No. 25 MIT Sweeps Past Blue Volleyball, 3-0

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – First year Yasmine Reece (New Rochelle, N.Y.) led all players with 13 kills but Wellesley College volleyball dropped a 3-0 (25-13, 25-13, 26-24) final to No. 25 MIT in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play on Tuesday night at Rockwell Cage.

With the victory, MIT runs its record to 18-1 and remains perfect, at 7-0, in NEWMAC matches. Wellesley drops to 7-9 on the season and 4-2 in conference play following tonight's result.

MIT sophomores Lisette Tellez (Miami, Fla.) and Alli Davanzo (St. Johns, Fla.) each recorded nine kills, helping MIT hit .316 as a team on the evening. Tellez also added 12 digs, finishing one short of junior Tori Wuthrich, who collected a team-high 13. First year Abby Bertics (La Jolla, Calif.) added eight kills for the Engineers, who also got seven kills from junior Megan Gebhard (Howell, Mich.), including the 1,000^th kill of Gebhard's career. First year setter Fiona Tanuwidjaja (Renton, Wash.) paced the offense with a match-high 30 assists.

For Wellesley, first year Samantha Hoang (Elk Grove, Calif.) added a match-high 16 digs while classmate Michelle Li (Scarsdale, N.Y.) picked up a team-high 21 assists. Junior Brooke Fieldman (Greenwood Village, Colo.) added six kills and five digs. On defense, sophomore Katie Yan (Cohoes, N.Y.) and Reece each recorded six digs.

MIT stormed out to lopsided advantages in both of the first two sets before taking 25-13 victories in each. In the opener, the Engineers took a 7-1 lead, later growing the advantage to 17-5 and 21-8, en route to the 25-13 win.

In the second set, the hosts established an early 8-3 lead before seizing control of the set at 13-5 following a kill by Tellez. The Blue closed the gap to 13-8 with three straight points, including a kill from Reece, but would get no closer than the five point deficit for the reminder of the frame, as MIT again rolled to a 25-13 set victory.

The third and final set was the only not to feature a 25-13 score line, as the Blue and Engineers battle through 13 ties and three lead changes before MIT captured the 3-0 match victory thanks to a 26-24 win. With MIT leading, 22-20, Reece put down kills to score three of the next four points in the match to help Wellesley take a 24-23 lead. However, the match ended as three straight Blue errors sealed the MIT victory. 

Wellesley returns home tomorrow night, October 7, to host Colby-Sawyer for a 7:00 PM non-conference match. MIT will also play a non-conference match in their next outing, when they travel to Emmanuel on Thursday, October 8, at 7:00 PM.