Norton, Mass. - September 28, 2021 - The Mount Holyoke College volleyball team fell to Wheaton College in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play on Tuesday evening in Emerson Gymnasium.
The loss brings the Lyons to 3-9 overall with an 0-5 mark in conference play, while Wheaton improves to 8-5 on the year with a 1-3 record against league opponents. The hosts prevailed by the set scores of 25-18, 25-16, 25-18.
Junior Marion Abeja (Kumi, Uganda) led Mount Holyoke with five kills and matched first-year Lucie Berclaz (Kyogo, Japan) with a team-best nine digs, while senior right side Gabi Davis (Keller, Texas) notched four kills to go along with four block assists in the setback.
Davis stopped an early run from Wheaton to begin the match, before an ace from Chelsea Galicia (Altadena, Calif.) evened the score at four apiece early. Still tied at five, Wheaton used a 5-0 run to take a 10-5 lead before Mount Holyoke crawled back to within a pair following a kill from Abeja and an attack error from Wheaton's Bailey Madrzyk. Wheaton pushed their lead back to six and ended the frame on a 5-0 run to seal the first set, 25-18.
Wheaton opened an 11-2 lead to begin the second set before Abeja delivered a kill followed by an ace from McKenna Crosby (Jonesborough, Tenn.) to pull the Lyons to within eight. From there, Wheaton forced match point on a kill from Megan Kelleher before Emily Hickey made it 25-16 with a kill to give the hosts a 2-0 match lead.
It was back-and-forth play to begin the third set before Wheaton used a three-point spurt to take a 6-3 lead. Wheaton then doubled their lead with back-to-back kills, before a kill from Crosby helped the Lyons back to within four, making it 19-15, Wheaton. After the hosts pushed their lead back to six Mount Holyoke took a timeout trailing 21-15, but from there Wheaton picked up four of the last six points to seal the 25-18 set victory.
Up next, Mount Holyoke College will head to Wellesley, Mass. for a 2 p.m. match with the Blue on Saturday, October 2.
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