Volleyball Wraps Up Regular Season With Sweep At Mitchell

NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Elms College women's volleyball team wrapped up regular season play with a 3-0 win at Mitchell College on Saturday afternoon in New England Collegiate Conference play at the Yarnall Athletic Center.

Elms won by set scores of 25-16, 25-13 and 25-11 to earn its 12^th win in 13 games and improve to 18-4 overall. The Blazers finish the year with an 8-1 record in NECC play and have secured no worse than a tie for first place in the league standings.

Hannah Pichardo (South Glen Falls, N.Y./South Glen Falls) paced Elms with nine kills and added nine digs and three service aces. Ayanna Meadows (Springfield, Mass./Chicopee) chipped in with eight kills, seven digs and three aces while Sabrina Christie (Agawam, Mass./Agawam)and Danielle Redding (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman) each contributed five kills. The Blazers hits .250 as a team and committed only 11 errors in the match.

Ariana Carter (Central Falls, R.I./Blackstone Academy) and Laurissa Amaker (North Haven, Conn./North Haven) finished with five kills and eight digs apiece to lead the Mariners while Shyla Phillips-Krick (Griswold, Conn./Griswold) posted a match-high 15 digs. Mitchell dropped to 3-16 overall and finished in a tie for seventh place in the NECC with a 2-7 record. 

A 4-0 start gave the Blazers a lead they would never relinquish in the first set. The Mariners clawed back to within two at 14-12 before Elms pulled away. Meadows provided back-to-back kills during a 3-0 spurt that bumped the margin back to five, and later in the set she served for three consecutive aces to make it 22-15. A kill by Rachel Magnuson (Miller Place, N.Y./Rocky Point) provided the final point of the set as Elms grabbed the early 1-0 advantage.

In the second set, a long serving spree by Kianna Lozada (Bayamon, P.R./Emadrian Bilingual School) yielded a 16-7 Elms lead. Six different Blazers recorded a kill in the stanza led by four from Redding.

Amaker contributed a pair of kills early in the third set to stake Mitchell to a 7-5 lead. However, the Blazers pulled in front behind four straight points—two of which came on aces by Hannah Adams (Deerfield, Mass./Frontier)—and never trailed again. Elms closed out the match by winning the final 12 points as Pichardo locked up the win from the service stripe.

The 2018 NECC Championship, which begins with first-round play on October 30, will include the top eight teams in the regular season standings. A complete bracket with seeding, match-ups and game times will be released by the conference later today.