SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- Elle Rimando had a career-high 22 kills and Madeline Barton added 19 kills with 15 digs, as the Mount Holyoke College volleyball team defeated Salve Regina University 3-1 (25-17, 21-25, 25-21, 25-11) Saturday afternoon in Mildred S. Howard Gymnasium.
Mount Holyoke (8-5, 1-1 NEWMAC) evened its conference record while dealing the visiting Seahawks (8-5, 1-1) their first conference defeat. The Lyons raise their all-time record against Salve to 2-4, including a 2-1 mark since the Seahawks joined the NEWMAC two seasons ago.
The Lyons' attack was fierce and not to be denied, evidenced by a stout .301 attack percentage, the second-highest of Mount Holyoke's season. Barton (Brookfield, Wis.) tallied 19 kills with only three errors on 41 attempts (.390), Rimando (Mililani, Hawaii) attacked at a .292 rate, and sophomore Olivia Murray (Miami, Fla.) had a season-high 12 kills with four errors on 26 swings (.308).
Senior setter Sadie Duffrin (Minneapolis, Minn.) had 45 assists, her career-high in a four-set contest, to go with 15 digs, her fifth double-double of the season and the 13th of her career. Barton, who recorded her 1,000th career kill in Mount Holyoke's last match, had her fifth double-double of the season and the 33rd of her career.
Junior libero Kyra Staples (Chatham, Ill.) had a match-high 19 digs.
Lauren Hoyle posted a team-high 12 kills for Salve Regina, while Anouk Jansen added seven kills.
Mount Holyoke was ready to go from the jump, putting the Seahawks behind with a brilliant first set in which the Lyons hit at a .484 rate and won sideouts on 14 of Salve's 17 serves. Rimando had eight kills and zero attack errors in the set, and Duffrin had 15 assists.
The Lyons hit a lull in the second set, dipping to a .081 attack percentage. Lily Dobbins put Salve in an 8-1 lead with seven consecutive serves early, and Mount Holyoke could get no closer than within three points until a late 6-1 run closed the gap to 23-21. But Salve used back-to-back attack errors by the Lyons to close out the set, tying the match at 1-1. Lucy Swanson had three kills with no errors for Salve in the set, and Jansen added three kills.
Salve took a 4-3 lead in the key third set and turned it into a 16-11 advantage before Mount Holyoke began its comeback with a kill by Murray. The Lyons took its first lead since 3-2 at 19-18 on a Rimando kill, and finished out the set with a 9-3 run for the 2-1 lead, with Rimando racking up four kills in the most important stretch of the match. Barton had five kills with no errors in the set, while Murray had four kills with no errors and Rimando had seven kills with two errors. Duffrin collected 13 assists in the set.
The fourth and final set was all Lyons after three straight serves by first-year Elanni Romero (Nashua, N.H.) gave them an early 6-3 lead. The lead expanded to 11-4, and after a kill by Barton made it 16-9, Staples served eight in a row to bring Mount Holyoke to a commanding 23-9 lead, with Barton collecting four kills and a block assist in that span. A Salve attack error clinched the win for the host Lyons.
Mount Holyoke next plays at WPI Tuesday at 7pm; Salve hosts Emerson at the same time.