NORTON, Mass. - Eight points separated Wheaton College and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) during New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's volleyball action on Tuesday night, but the hosts fell short by a 3-0 (24-26, 22-25, 22-25) count in Emerson Gymnasium.
Suffering their second straight loss to WPI, the Lyons slip below .500 at 8-9 overall and 2-2 in the conference, while the Engineers move to 13-2 and 3-1.
Freshman Jackie Jones (Amherst, N.H./Souhegan) and sophomore Rachel Vergara (Needham, Mass./Needham) posted 11 and eight kills, respectively, for Wheaton. Senior Becca Rose (Sudbury, Mass./Lincoln-Sudbury Regional) handed out 25 assists and recorded nine digs, while classmate Kristen Hunt (Milford, Conn./Jonathan Law) was credited with 11 digs.
Sophomores Belinda Nwagbara (Santa Rosa, Calif./Elsie Allen) and Bailey Sarber (Westerly, R.I./Westerly) paced the WPI offense with 10 and nine kills, respectively, and junior Kim Woodward (Clifton Park, N.Y./Shenendehowa) distributed 30 assists. Junior Joan Porambo (Jim Thorpe, Pa./Marian Catholic), who needed 16 digs to reach 1,000 in her career, finished with 15, while sophomore Elyssa Dorenfeld (Reading, Mass./Reading) added 14.
The visitors jumped out to a 9-3 edge in the opening set before the Lyons tallied six unanswered points to knot the score at nine. Despite not taking the lead the rest of the way, Wheaton tied things up four more times, including when a Jones kill made the score 24-all.
Similar to the first set, WPI jetted out to an early lead in the second contest at 11-4. Trailing 13-6, the Blue and White used an 8-3 run to get to within 16-14 but wasn't able to grab an advantage. The teams were deadlocked at 21 before the Engineers scored four of the set's final five points.
The last set proved to be the tightest from start to finish, which included six ties. With the set tied at 13, WPI tallied three straight points and didn't look back, ballooning its advantage to four on five occasions.
The Lyons head to Willimantic, Connecticut, on Friday to take on Eastern Connecticut State University in a non-conference match at 6:00 p.m.
