MIT Sweeps Wellesley Volleyball, 3-0

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- MIT Sophomore Lauren Keller (Albuquerque, N.M.) had a career high 12 kills as the No. 19 ranked Engineers secured a 3-0 (25-13, 25-12,25-16) New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) win over Wellesley College volleyball on Tuesday evening at Rockwell Cage.

Senior setter Sofie Kupiec (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) put together 29 assists for MIT (9-1 Overall, 3-0 NEWMAC) as the Engineers had 40 kills on a stellar .376 attack percentage. Senior TylerBell Smith (Frisco, Texas) had nine kills to lead Wellesley (3-6 Overall, 0-3 NEWMAC).

Ella Gragg (Morganton, N.C.) added nine kills for MIT, while Kupiec and Ottavia Personeni (Bethesda, Md.) combined to add 20 more kills for the hosts.

Sophomore Rachel Xu (Beijing, China) added seven kills for Wellesley. First year libero Kaija Kunze-Hoeg (Eagan, Minn.) had 13 digs and sophomore Mikayla Tansil (Warren, Mich.) accounted for 18 assists for the Blue.

MIT opened the match with three straight points eventually stretching the lead to 9-2. Wellesley narrowed the advantage to 12-7 but could not find a way to close the gap, as MIT took as 18-12 lead en route to a 25-13 win in the first set. Ali Gibbs (Chargin Falls, Ohio) opened the second set with back-to-back kills for MIT before the Engineers ran the lead to 10-3. Salembier and Smith strung together multiple kills to help Wellesley cut the gap to 15-9 but the Blue could not overtake the Engineers, as MIT closed out a 25-12 second set victory.

The third set was a back and forth affair until the 16-13 mark, when the Engineers snagged three consecutive points to take a 19-13 lead. MIT would not trail in the set, as Paige Edwards (Kansas City, Mo.) finished a 25-16 set with a kill to close out the 3-0 sweep.

Next-up, the Blue return home to host Keene State at 7:00 PM on Thursday. MIT will host a tri-match with WPI and Colby-Sawyer on Saturday.