SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – Coast Guard Academy picked up a 3-1 victory over Mount Holyoke College on Tuesday night, powered by double-digit kills from three different players. With the win, the Bears improve to 8-3 overall and 2-1 in the conference while Mount Holyoke falls to 4-4 overall and 0-3 in the New England Men's and Women's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC).
Sophomore outside hitter Angelou Dunton (Seattle, Wash./Holy Names Academy) led the charge with a game-high 17 kills. First year Bridget Boyle (Dunwoody, Ga./Dunwoody) and sophomore middle hitter Alexi Deane (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./West Broward) also had strong games with 14 and 10 kills, respectively. Defensively, senior Michelle McGill (Atlantic Beach, Fla./Duncan U. Fletcher High) posted a team-best 10 digs, while Dunton was close behind with nine.
For the Lyons, sophomore middle hitter Sasha Simine led the attack with 11 kills, followed by junior middle hitter Jamesa Allen (Orlando, Fla./Lake Nona), who had nine. Juniors Joy Maran (Santa Fe, N.M./Santa Fe Prep), Cameron Graham (Sarasota, Fla./The Out Door Academy), and Sarah Caggiano (Leonardtown, Md./Leonardtown) each recorded 10 digs on the evening. First year setter Brayden Walden (McKinney, Texas/McKinney North) had a team-high 17 assists.
Coast Guard started the match on fire, getting out to a 17-7 lead, powered by three kills and a pair of service aces from Boyle. Errors plagued the Lyons for the rest of the set resulting in four points for the Bears on their way to a 25-13 set win.
In the second set, MHC was the aggressor out the gates, gaining a 7-6 advantage after an attack error by Kempf. Coast Guard capitalized on two back-to-back service aces to spark a run that helped the Bears go up 15-10. The run was halted by a Simine kill, which started a 5-2 run for MHC to close the gap to 17-15.
The Bears extended the lead to five (23-18) before the Lyons mounted a comeback behind two consecutive service aces from Simine to make it 23-21. The Lyons came to as close as 24-23, but a kill from Dunton ended the set and gave Coast Guard a 2-0 lead heading into the third set.
Mount Holyoke did not go down easy, battling Coast Guard to a 22-22 tie in the third. The Bears went up by one after a kill from Saunders, but the Lyons kept composure and forced Coast Guard to make three straight errors to take the set 26-24 and bring the game into the fourth set with a 3-1 score.
Coast Guard jumped out to an early lead in the fourth set after a pair of errors from the Lyons made it 14-6. The Lyons closed the gap to 15-9 after a kill from Caggiano, but the three kills from both Dunton and Boyle eventually gave the Bears the set and match win.
Mount Holyoke will be back at home on Saturday, facing Emerson College at 1:00pm. Coast Guard will be on the road once again on Thursday for a non-conference matchup against Merchant Marine at 6:00pm.
