South Hadley, Mass. - October 12, 2021 - The Mount Holyoke College volleyball team fell to visiting Springfield College, 3-0, in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) match on Tuesday evening in Howard Gymnasium.
With the loss, the Lyons drop to 3-13 on the year and 0-8 in league play, while Springfield improves to 15-4 overall and 3-4 in the NEWMAC. The Pride was victorious by the set scores of 25-13, 25-15, 25-18.
Leading Mount Holyoke College in the setback was the combination of Sarah Bishop (Rutland, Mass.) and Gabi Davis (Keller, Texas), as the duo picked up six kills apiece, while first-year libero Lucie Berclaz (Kyogo, Japan) was tremendous defensively, matching her previous collegiate career-best total with 17 digs on the evening.
For Springfield, Camryn Bancroft racked up a match-best 12 kills hitting .478 in three sets, while Sara Labadorf handed out 29 assists in the win. Labadorf and Hailey Deguire posted a team-best 10 digs while Abigail Wright totaled seven service aces for the visitors.
Springfield got off to a hot start as Bancroft picked up two early kills before a pair of kills from Davis evened the score at three apiece. From there, the Pride opened a 9-4 advantage following a kill from Wixted but then back-to-back kills from Marion Abeja (Kumi, Uganda) and Bishop pulled the Lyons back to within a pair. Following a kill from Davis that made it 12-10, Springfield, the visitors rattled off 11 of the next 12 points to take a 23-11 advantage before a kill from Mac Fornili sealed the 25-13 set victory and gave the Pride a 1-0 match lead.
Springfield started the second set on a 7-1 run which was stopped by a kill from Bishop to make it 7-2. From there, another kill from Bishop followed by an ace from Brayden Walden (McKinney, Texas) made it 8-6 before the Pride opened a 14-8 lead on an ace from Deguire and a pair of attack errors from Mount Holyoke. Another kill from Davis kept the Lyons within six and a kill from Bishop highlighted a late rally by Mount Holyoke, but the Pride eventually closed out the second set on a kill from Labadorf and an ace from Wright.
Springfield opened the third set on another run, taking a 7-2 lead following a kill from Fornili before Davis answered with a kill of her own to make it 7-3. Springfield would then extend its lead to seven before a kill from Abeja pulled the Lyons back to within five, trailing 13-8 midway through the frame. From there, Crosby would add her lone kill of the match but Springfield cruised to the 25-18 set victory and match win.
Up next, Mount Holyoke College will travel to WPI for a NEWMAC contest on Tuesday, October 19. The game is set to begin at 7 p.m.
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