SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- The Mount Holyoke College volleyball team could not be stopped in its bid to defeat NEWMAC rival Wheaton College for the first time since 2011, as the host Lyons scored a lopsided 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 22-14) victory over the visiting Lyons Tuesday night in Mildred S. Howard Gymnasium.
Mount Holyoke (10-7, 1-5 NEWMAC) grabbed its first conference win of the season and kept Wheaton (7-13, 0-6 NEWMAC) winless. The win snapped Wheaton's 11-match winning streak against Mount Holyoke.
Both sides had efficient nights on offense, in particular the hosts. With 42 kills and only seven attack errors on 100 attempts, Mount Holyoke enjoyed its best attack percentage since the 2022 season at .350, while Wheaton tied for its best hitting rate of the year, at .281.
For the host Lyons, junior Elle Rimando (Mililani, Hawaii) kept up her hot play of late, with a team-high 12 kills on 25 attempts (.320), to go with three service aces. Junior Madeline Barton (Brookfield, Wis.) and senior Lucie Berclaz (Hull, Mass.) both enjoyed among their best respective hitting nights as well. Barton had 10 kills with no errors (.400), and Berclaz posted 10 kills at a .346 rate. Barton added 12 digs for her sixth double-double of the season. First-year Olivia Murray (Miami, Fla.) also posted a highly efficient outing with seven kills on 14 attempts (.429).
Junior setter Sadie Duffrin (Minneapolis, Minn.) kept the offense humming with 35 assists along with six aces.
Julia Wingler had eight kills on 12 attempts for Wheaton (.667) and Hollis Hanson added eight kills on 16 attempts (.438). Mary Caroline Mazzzanti led the visiting Lyons with nine kills. Ajsa Orban had 33 assists and Jackie Hochberg had a match-high 18 digs.
Leading off the match with a kill by Murray, Mount Holyoke never trailed in the first set, despite six tie scores in the set. Wheaton erased a 17-10 Mount Holyoke lead with eight straight points with Hochberg serving, including three aces and two kills by Hanson. The hosts pulled away from the final tie (19-19) with a 6-2 run featuring kills by Murray and Barton and finalized with an ace by sophomore Kyra Staples (Chatham, Ill.).
The second set featured 11 ties and four lead changes, though Mount Holyoke led for good from 20-19 on. A kill by Celina Henn closed Wheaton within a point at 23-22, but a thunderous kill by Rimando gave the hosts a 24-22 lead. An attack error put Mount Holyoke ahead 2-0.
Mount Holyoke kicked off the third set with a kill by Murray, and went on to dominate the set, mounting leads of 4-1, 8-4, 14-5, and 22-9. Wheaton made a late run with Hochberg serving, including back-to-back kills by Henn, but the visitors couldn't sustain the run long enough to extend the match. Rimando scored the hosts' final two points with a kill and an ace.
Mount Holyoke plays at Springfield Saturday at 12pm, while Wheaton plays at Smith at the same time.
