SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- The Mount Holyoke College volleyball team took the first set from Clark University before the visiting Cougars came back to defeat the Lyons 3-1 (18-25, 25-9, 25-18, 25-20) on Tuesday night in Mount Holyoke's final home match of the season.
The stands in Mildred S. Howard Gymnasium were full of students wearing costumes for a Halloween night costume contest, who cheered on the Lyons as the home team took a 1-0 lead behind five kills from junior captain Lucie Berclaz (Hull, Mass.). Mount Holyoke jumped out to a 7-0 lead and never trailed in the opening set.
Clark (16-11, 5-5 NEWMAC) came back to tie the match with a dominant second set. The Cougars took leads of 5-1 and 17-6 en route to a 25-9 set win, getting three kills apiece from Victoria Pastor, Camille Sterling, and Camille Flurry, as well as a pair of aces by Yvanna Torres.
Pastor posted six kills in the third set as Clark took a 2-1 lead. A 5-1 Mount Holyoke run late in the set closed the Lyons within a point at 18-17, but Clark responded with five straight points, including a pair of kills by Sofia Scherrer del Llano.
Clark took the lead for good in the fourth set at 4-3 and expanded it to 15-7. Mount Holyoke's four straight points closed the gap to 20-17 on back-to-back kills by sophomore Madeline Barton (Brookfield, Wis.), but a pair of kills by Flurry made it 23-18 in Clark's favor, prompting a Mount Holyoke timeout. A team block by Flurry and Sterling brought Clark to match point, but the Lyons stayed in the match with a Clark attack error and an ace served by Mount Holyoke sophomore Sadie Duffrin (Minneapolis, Minn.). But on the third match point, Pastor put the final touches on the Cougars' win with her match-best 15th kill.
Pastor led all players with 15 kills, while Flurry had 13 kills and Sterling added 10. Yumeng Liu and Cameron Gill had 27 and 23 digs, respectively, and Torres led the Cougars with 25 assists.
Barton and Berclaz both posted double-doubles, sharing Mount Holyoke's team lead with 11 kills apiece and 17 and 14 digs, respectively. Sophomore Elle Rimando (Mililani, Hawaii) added 10 kills and three blocks. Sophomore Amelia Ringor (West Lafayette, Ind.) and first-year Kyra Staples (Chatham, Ill.) tied for the match high with 30 digs apiece while Duffrin tallied 38 assists.
Mount Holyoke (11-14, 1-9 NEWMAC) will play its last non-conference match Thursday 7pm at Connecticut College. Clark plays Saturday 11am at Coast Guard.
