Women’s Volleyball Outlasted by Albertus Magnus College, 3-1

CHICOPEE, Mass. – The Elms College women's volleyball team fell to Albertus Magnus College, 3-1 (20-25, 25-20, 25-17, 25-21) in day two action of the 2013 Blazer Challenge on Saturday afternoon at Picknelly Arena.

With the loss, Elms moves to 0-3 overall, while Albertus Magnus improves to 1-2 on the season. Westfield State University topped SUNY Cobleskill, 3-0 (25-18, 25-11, 25-15) to improve to 3-0 on the season. The Fighting Tigers move to 2-1 overall.

Albertus Magnus 3, Elms 1

In a match that saw a total of 29 tie scores and 17 lead changes, Elms opened the match with a 25-20 victory in the first set. The Falcons then won three straight sets complete a 3-1 victory behind a 10-kill and 11-dig effort from Melissa Manning (Milford, Conn.).

Elms' junior middle hitter Christine Searles (Tolland, Mass.) led all hitters with 11 kills and hit at a .258 clip, while junior libero Caitlyn Larvey (Greenfield, Mass.) notched a match-best 20 digs and added five kills on eight attempts with zero errors (.625).

Lily Dy (Torrington, Conn.) and Alyssa Puccilli (Milford, Conn.) totaled a team-best 15 digs each, while Dy dished out 23 assists. Caitlin Prete (Milford, Conn.) added 12 digs.

Sophomore setters Kelly Melanson (Waltham, Mass.) and Shannon Bolton (Shelton, Conn.) handed out 16 and 15 assists respectively, while junior opposite hitter JC Pickett (Chicopee, Mass.) notched 15 digs.

Westfield State 3, SUNY Cobleskill 0

In the opening set, the sides played to seven tie scores but Westfield State never trailed claiming the first set 25-18. The Owls posted a 25-11 score in the second frame to take a 2-0 advantage in the match and survived an 8-0 run by the Fighting Tigers in set three to pull away to a 25-15 third set win and complete the sweep.

Julia Warner (Lee, Mass.) led all hitters with 13 kills while Lindsay Rescott (Northport, N.Y.) followed with 10 kills. Setter Carolyn Cote (Chelmsford, Mass.) dished out 32 assists and paced the Owls to a .293 hitting percentage and also led the team in digs with 10.

Kayleigh Shea (Chelmsford, Mass.) added seven digs, while Casey Doremus (Westford, Mass.) notched eight kills in the winning effort.

SUNY Cobleskill was led by Kady Porterfield (Macdoel, Calif.) who totaled five kills, and Kim Cordova (Oneonta, N.Y.) who notched a team-best 11 digs. Casey Holbert (Sauquoit, N.Y.) handed out eight of the Fighting Tigers' 11 assists in the loss.

All-Tournament Team
Julia Warner – Westfield State – Tournament MVP
Lindsay Rescott – Westfield State
Amber Baker – SUNY Cobleskill
Katie Yang – SUNY Cobleskill
Melissa Manning – Albertus Magnus
Alyssa Puccilli – Albertus Magnus
Christine Searles - Elms

Elms returns to action on Friday, Sept. 6-7 at the Western New England University Invitational. The Blazers square off against Emerson College at 7:00 p.m. on Friday evening.