SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- The Mount Holyoke College volleyball team rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Wellesley College 3-2 (17-25, 22-25, 25-15, 25-15, 15-10) for the Lyons' first NEWMAC victory of the season Saturday in Mildred S. Howard Gymnasium.
It is Mount Holyoke's (6-7, 1-4 NEWMAC) first victory over the rival Blue (5-9, 0-5 NEWMAC) since the 1994 season.
Seniors Mar Simon (Miami, Fla.) and Marion Abeja (Kumi, Uganda) led Mount Holyoke with 10 kills apiece, with Abeja adding 15 digs, three aces and four blocks. Simon also totaled nine digs and two blocks.
Senior McKenna Crosby (Jonesborough, Tenn.) had eight kills on 18 attempts (.389) with four blocks, and first-year Elle Rimando (Mililani, Hawaii) added six kills on 15 swings (.333) to go with six blocks (1 solo). Sophomore Lucie Berclaz (Hull, Mass.) led the Lyons with 17 digs and first-year Sadie Duffrin (Minneapolis, Minn.) paced the offense with 34 assists.
Jennifer Yu had a match-high 12 kills with a match-high 14 attack errors, to go with four aces and 10 digs. Kate Salembier added 11 kills for the Blue. Kaija Kunze-Hoeg had a match-high 29 digs and Mikayla Tansil dished out 34 assists.
Wellesley pulled away from a 14-14 tie in the first set, finishing on a 7-0 run with Yu serving to grab a 1-0 lead.
The Blue continued to control the early part of the match by leaping out to a 9-1 lead in the second set. The Lyons clawed back within two points, at 18-16, then a late run by the hosts pushed the score to 23-22. But kills by Kennedy Mayo and Kate Salembier staved off the comeback and gave the Blue a commanding 2-0 lead.
Mount Holyoke demonstrated it was not going away, however, scoring the first three points of the third set and running out to an 8-1 lead, thanks in part to two aces served by Simon and another served by Duffrin. Abeja served in a 4-0 run midway through the set, punctuated by an ace and kills by first-year Madeline Barton (Brookfield, Wis.) and Rimando, for a 15-3 lead, and Wellesley was unable to close the gap closer than eight points for the rest of the set, closing the match score to 2-1 in Wellesley's favor.
The Lyons kept up their momentum in the fourth set -- while their attacking dipped to a .103 rate in the set, they made up for the difference with six team blocks, including three block assists apiece by Crosby and Rimando and two more apiece by Duffrin and Abeja. Abeja paced Mount Holyoke in the set with a team-high four kills and seven digs.
The fifth set score was 7-7 before a kill by Crosby gave the Lyons the lead for good, as it would turn out, at the halfway mark of the decisive frame. Simon's kill made it 9-7. The teams traded sideouts, but another kill by Simon returned service to Mount Holyoke, and Simon served for three straight points, with a kill by Duffrin and an ace by Simon. A kill by Mia Maxwell and a bad set by Mount Holyoke closed the difference to 13-10, but Mount Holyoke got the final two points with a Wellesley attack error and a dropshot kill by Abeja to clinch the victory.
The NEWMAC victory is Mount Holyoke's first in 25 matches, since a win over Smith in 2018 (with no season taking place in 2020).
Both teams have NEWMAC road matches Tuesday with 7pm starts: Mount Holyoke plays at Coast Guard, while Wellesley plays at Wheaton (Mass.).
