Worcester, Mass. - October 19, 2021 - The Mount Holyoke College volleyball team fell to host WPI, 3-0, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play on Tuesday evening in Harrington Auditorium. 

With the loss, the Lyons are now 3-14 overall and 0-9 in league play, while the Engineers improve to 15-5 on the year with a 3-5 mark against conference opponents. The Engineers won by the set scores of 25-20, 25-6, 25-21.

Leading the Lyons was senior outside hitter Sarah Bishop (Rutland, Mass.), who produced a team-best eight kills hitting at a .214 clip, while also gathering seven digs. Marion Abeja (Kumi, Uganda) handed out nine assists and picked up three service aces and five digs in the setback.

Mount Holyoke jumped out to a 6-4 lead in the first set, but a quick 7-1 run, backed by strong serving from Natalie Wierzbicki put WPI up 11-7. The Engineers continued their run, pushing the advantage to seven, before a late rally saw the Lyons cut the advantage to 22-20 on a pair of WPI errors. The Engineers rebounded, however, finishing out the frame with three straight points, including back-to-back Renee Sawka blocks to win it.

Set two was all WPI, as a 6-0 start for the Crimson and Gray set the tone and the advantage quickly grew to double figures on a Reynolds kill. WPI did not allow back-to-back Mount Holyoke points the whole set, as the Engineers cruised to a 25-6 win and 2-0 match lead.

The third and final set was the most competitive, but timely hitting for WPI sealed the sweep. The Engineers scored the first three points of the frame, but a 6-3 run from MHC tied the match on a Mar Simon (Miami, Fla.) kill. WPI used a 5-1 surge, which included a pair of Wetmore winners to go up 13-8, before the Lyons again battled back, cutting the lead to 15-14 on an ace. Another 5-1 WPI run pushed the lead back to five points, but again Mount Holyoke battled back, cutting it to 22-20 late in the frame. Wetmore then helped seal the deal with three kills in the final five points, as the Engineers took the third set 25-21.

Up next, Mount Holyoke College will take part in the Volleyball Hall of Fame Invitational and will take on Bates at Smith on Saturday, October 23 at 10 a.m. before heading to Amherst for a 3 p.m. match versus Westfield State.

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