Jacobs leads offense with nine kills

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Wheaton College women's volleyball team lost to MIT, 3-0, by scores of 25-21, 25-18 and 25-18 on Thursday night in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) match at the Rockwell Cage.

Wheaton junior middle hitter Kendall Jacobs (San Diego, Calif./Scripps Ranch) paced the offense with nine kills (.400 hitting percentage), three assists and five digs. Classmate Arieanne Creighton (Brookline, N.H./Hollis Brookline) added eight kills (.348 hitting percentage), while Colleen Koen (Centerville, Mass./Barnstable) and Deirdre Wilson (Aptos, Calif./Aptos) both chipped in with six putaways. Wilson also contributed 15 assists, four digs and one block assist. Junior middle hitter Elise Waelder (San Diego, Calif./Point Loma) had five kills (.500 hitting percentage) and sophomore Caitlin Hellebrand (Corona, Calif./Santiago) handed out 12 assists, alongside three digs, to rounded out the offense.

MIT sophomore outside hitter Megan Gebhard (Howell, Mich./Howell) led all student-athletes with 14 kills (.412 hitting percentage) and two digs. Senior outside hitter Jenny Astrachan (Austin, Texas/Westlake) sent home 12 swings (.500 hitting percentage), while senior setter Nicole Gagnier (Atlanta, Ga./Our Lady of Mercy) facilitated the offense with 26 assists, five service aces, ten digs and two block assists for her fourth double-double of the season.

The Engineers hit over .300 in every set on the night en route to its sixth conference victory of the season. Set one only featured two tied scores as MIT broke away from a 16-16 score late in the opening set with four-straight points, which included two kills by Gebhard and a pair of errors by Wheaton. The Lyons brought the score within two (22-20) late in the stanza, but MIT used back-to-back kills by Astrachan and first-year outside hitter Clare Farley (La Jolla, Calif./La Jolla) and a Wheaton service error to post the 25-21 win.

Set two showcased eight ties and six lead changes before MIT pushed ahead in the match with an 8-0 run after the score was tied at 10-10. The Engineers received three-straight kills from Gagnier, sophomore right-side hitter Jennie Glerum (Redmond, Wash./Lakeside School) and Gebhard to jump ahead 13-10, while Gagnier also notched three service aces later on in the run to highlight the offensive spurt.

In the third set, MIT led the entire way as the Engineers scored four-straight points to begin the decisive stanza and never looked back. Wheaton charged back to cut its deficit to five (17-12), but the hosts outscored the Lyons by an 8-6 margin down the stretch to secure the win.

Wheaton (12-10, 3-3 NEWMAC) travels to Coast Guard on Tuesday, October 14 for a NEWMAC contest at 7 p.m. MIT (19-2, 6-1 NEWMAC), who extended its winning streak to seven-straight matches, hosts the MIT Quad Tournament next week on October 17-18.

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