Pine Manor Snags Thriller Over Women’s Volleyball, 3-1
CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College junior outside hitter
Stacy Croteau (Agawam, Mass.) smashed a match-high
17 kills but Pine Manor College received a 14-kill output from
Alie Johnston (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) and a
13-kill effort from Jennifer Gross (Coral Springs,
Fla.) to help lift the Gators to an intense 3-1 (25-11,
25-19, 34-36, 25-21) victory over the Blazers in Tuesday
evening's non-conference women's volleyball match at
Picknelly Arena.
With the loss, Elms falls to 6-18 on the season, while Pine Manor improves to 7-15 overall.
With Pine Manor leading 2-0 in the contest, the sides fought to a 28-28 tie in the third set before Elms' junior setter/outside hitter Jenn Rego (Fall River, Mass.) smashed a kill to put the Blazers ahead 29-28. Pine Manor's Ashley Carusone (Nashua, N.H.) answered with a kill to knot the score at 29-29. A Gators' attacking error gave the Blazers a 30-29 advantage but Carusone again answered with a kill to even the score at 30-30. Carusone then served up an ace to give Pine Manor a 31-30 edge before Rego belted a kill to tie the frame at 31-31. Croteau and Johnston then traded kills to keep the set at 32-32 and a kill by Blazers' senior middle hitter Laura Kulig (Holyoke, Mass.) followed by an Elms attacking error moved the score to 33-33. The Gators followed suit receiving a kill from Johnston to take a 34-33 lead before a Pine Manor miscue tied the frame for the 16th time. Two more Gators' attacking errors finally broke the stalemate to give Elms a 36-34 victory in the set and force a fourth stanza.
With the score even at 14-14 in the fourth frame, Pine Manor used an 8-1 run highlighted by a pair of service aces from Megan Patch (Bethpage, Tenn.) and Carusone to stake a 22-15 lead. A Carusone service error sparked a 6-0 run by the Blazers to pull Elms to within one at 22-21. Croteau delivered a pair of kills while Clark added a kill and teamed with freshman setter Ashley Fuller (Amherst, Mass.) on a block to highlight the stretch for the Blazers. From there, a kill by Johnston, a service ace from Gross and a ball handling error by Elms secured the set and match for the Gators.
Rego finished with eight kills and a tie for the match-high in digs with 15, while Croteau added 11 digs and a solo block in the loss.
Fuller dished out a team-best 21 assists and added nine digs, while Clark downed a pair of aces and assisted on two blocks.
Patch paced the Gators' offense with 32 helpers in the win, downed six aces and recorded a tie for the match-high in digs with 15. Carusone finished with nine kills and 13 digs while serving up four aces of the Gators' staggering 22 aces.
Gross registered four solo stuffs to help the team record 10.0 total blocks in the win.
Elms concludes its regular season slate with a New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) tri-match at Lesley University on Saturday, Oct. 30. The Blazers will square off against Southern Vermont College at 2:00 p.m. before playing the host Lynx at 4:00 p.m.
