Women’s Volleyball Falls To UMass Dartmouth, 3-1

Box Score

CHICOPEE, MA – Elms College sophomore outside hitter Stacy Croteau (Agawam, MA) delivered a match-high 18 digs, but UMass Dartmouth received a double-digit kill effort from Allie Mastrocola (Swansea, MA) and Eleni Tsaparakis (Norwalk, CT) to help lift the Corsairs to a 3-1 (14-25, 10-25, 25-20, 13-25) win in Saturday afternoon’s non-conference volleyball match at Picknelly Arena.

With the loss, Elms moves to 3-11 on the season while UMass Dartmouth improves to 9-2 overall.

Trailing 2-0 in the match, the Blazers built a 23-16 lead in the third frame before UMass Dartmouth rallied for four of the next five points, bring the score to 24-20. From there, Croteau blasted a kill to secure the set and force a fourth stanza.

In the fourth frame, the Corsairs raced out to a 21-12 lead and closed out the contest scoring four of the final five points.

UMass Dartmouth received 13 kills from Mastrocola and 10 from Tsaparakis to pace the Corsair offense while Jessica Goncalves (New Bedford, MA) directed that attack with a match-best 32 assists. Shannon Brodie (Chelmsford, MA) captained the defensive effort with 10 digs while Tsaparakis chipped in with nine.

The Corsairs used 4-0 run with the score set at 21-14 in the first set to stake a 1-0 lead in the match, and with the score set at 19-10 in the second frame, rattled off six consecutive points to take a 2-0 lead in the contest.

Croteau and senior middle hitter Melissa Clark (Chicopee, MA) finished with a team-high seven kills each, while senior setter Kim Phillips (Randolph, MA) dished out 19 assists and added 11 digs in the losing effort.

Elms returns to action on Saturday, Oct. 3 when it hosts Newbury and Daniel Webster in New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) tri-match action. First-serve against Newbury is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. at Picknelly Arena.