SCORE: Wheaton 3 - Clark 1 (25-21, 26-24, 24-26, 27-25)

RECORDS: Wheaton (24-8, 7-3 NEWMAC) - Clark (18-10, 6-4 NEWMAC)

LOCATION: Norton, Mass. (Emerson Gymnasium)

THE RUNDOWN:  

• Wheaton collects its first New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) playoff win since 1998 when the Lyons swept Smith College. 
• The Lyons ended the game with a season-high 107 digs and 67 kills.
• Wheaton was paced by a match-high 15 kills from junior Claire Cansler, while Marina Ramos led Clark with 13 kills. 
• Becca Houghton came up with a career-high 52 assists for Wheaton, while Clark's Sophia Tornio ended the contest with a team-high 32 assists. 
• Sophomore Nikita Selivan led all players with seven blocks, while Casey Dinga and Cansler each finished with six for the Lyons. 
• Stephanie Martin, Cathryn MacGregor and Julia Palomba all finished with 20+ digs for Wheaton. 
• Rayme Quiban led all players with 26 digs for the Cougars. 
• Unlike their first meeting, the rematch was a scrappy back and forth throughout all four sets with both sides holding and losing the momentum throughout. 
• Wheaton took an early lead in the opening set but could never pull away from Clark. The Lyons, who never trailed in the set, found a way to keep the Cougars just far enough away to capture the win. 
• The second set saw the score tied up seven times with neither team holding more than a three-point advantage. With the contest tied at 24-24, the Lyons ended the set on a Palomba kill and MacGregor ace. 
• Back-to-back Ramos kills and a Lyon error put the Cougars ahead early in the third set, but Wheaton would fight back to take a 9-8 advantage. The two sides then went on to tie the game 13 times before kills from Ana Mercado and Jacqueline Jimenez-Maldonado ended the game in Clark's favor. 
• The Cougars carried the momentum into the fourth set, rushing out to a commanding 7-0 lead, just to watch it disappear with a 7-0 Wheaton run. As they did in the previous sets the two teams would fight for every point, tying the set seven times, before a Cougar error and a Houghton kill gave Wheaton enough for the victory. 

THE BASICS:

• Attacking percentage: Wheaton .180 - Clark .092
• Service aces: Wheaton 5 - Clark 6
• Digs: Wheaton 107 - Clark 81
• Block solos: Wheaton 2 - Clark 1
• Block assists: Wheaton 20 - Clark 8

UP NEXT: #4 Wheaton travel to #1 MIT on Saturday, Nov. 4 for a 1 p.m. NEWMAC Semifinal match. The Lyons fell to the Engineers, who are ranked 21st in the nation, 3-0 earlier in the season at Rockwell Cage. VIDEO / LIVE STATS