Wheaton College (MA)

NORTON, Mass. -- The Wheaton College (Mass.) women's volleyball team suffered their second defeat in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference action as they fell to Wellesley 3-0 (25-21, 27-25, 25-19) following Saturday's senior day celebrations in Emerson Gymnasium.

Wellesley earned their seventh win overall to improve to 7-3 and earned their first conference win to move to 1-1 in the NEWMAC. Wheaton fell to 4-9 with the loss and remained in search of their first NEWMAC win at 0-2.

Wheaton seniors Mary Caroline Mazzanti (New Orleans, La.), Arianna Tanksley (Chesapeake, Va.), Jackie Hochberg (Tampa, Fla.), Ajsa Orbán (Budapest, Hungary) and Lillie Zickert (Gurnee, Ill.) were all honored pregame during the senior day celebrations. The Lyons were led by three different hitters with eight kills. Junior Katie de la Pena (Little Rock, Colo.) was the most efficient Lyon to punch down eight balls as she did it on .176 hitting. First year Maddy Botelho (Swansea, Mass.) had eight kills on .071 hitting with 13 digs while Mazzanti finished with eight kills on .167 hitting. Orbán led the team with 16 assists and one service ace, while Hochberg had 12 digs to finish one behind Botelho.

Wellesley was led by first year Delia Noel (Telluride, Colo.) as she knocked home 12 kills on .269 hitting. Senior Evelyn Hill (Rocklin, Calif.) finished with eight kills, two service aces and three blocking assists for 11.5 combined points, while junior setter Else Kunze-Hoeg (Eagan, Minn.) had seven kills on .583 hitting with a game-high 27 assists. First year libero Erica Lin (Hillsborough, Calif.) had 11 digs to lead her team. 

Wheaton opened the game with an error before Botelho opened her account with a kill to tie it at 1-1. The deadlock at the start was the only tied score in the first set as the Blue exploded for 10 straight points to put themselves ahead 11-1. Hill was the tip of the spear for Wellesley across the 10-point stretch with a kill and two service aces, but Wheaton's five attacking errors were the true source of the spurt. Noel notched another kill after Hill missed a serve to make it 12-2 before de la Pena was able to generate some momentum with a kill that started a brief 3-0 run for the Lyons. Wheaton was tripped up by an attacking error, but managed to string together a 6-1 scoring run to inch themselves closer to the Blue at 14-11. Wheaton's momentum petered out as Hill picked up another kill to push her side to 20. Wheaton managed three straight kills late in the set, but kills from Hill and junior Ella Mancuso (North Andover, Mass.) gave the opening frame to the visitors, 25-21. 

The Lyons reversed the script at the start of the second set and instead of falling down by a large margin early, they surged ahead to a 7-2 lead. Three kills from Mazzanti and one from de la Pena had the Lyons in control, but their control quickly slipped away. Two kills from Noel and one from Hill combined with a slew of errors by Wheaton saw the set knotted back up at 9-9. The two teams stayed tied all the way up to 15-15 before Botelho put down a kill and Hochberg served up an ace to take a 17-15 lead. Wheaton continued to stay in front of Wellesley as de la Pena put down two more kills, and a Mazzanti kill put them on set point at 24-22. Noel found two more kills as the Blue made a late push for the win. Wheaton had hope as first year Eliana Inch (Mechanicsburg, Pa.) found the floor to make it 25-24, but a kill and an ace from Noel helped the Blue take the second set 27-25. 

The trend of one team taking a large lead out of the gates continued into the third set as Wellesley opened the frame with seven straight points. Kunze-Hoeg missed her serve to give Wheaton their first point of the frame before the Blue went right back to scoring. Noel bounced a kill home to put her side at 10 points, just after the Lyons recorded their second point thanks to a Wellesley error. The Lyons started to chip away at their deficit to make it 14-10, but a 5-2 scoring run by Wellesley erased their progress. Three straight Wheaton errors made it 20-13, before scraping a 6-2 scoring run together to make it 22-19. Kills from Kunze-Hoeg and Noel put the Blue on match point, and Wheaton ended the game with an error to fall 25-19. 

Wheaton will stay at home for their next match against MIT on Tuesday at 7:00 pm while Wellesley returns to their home gym for a match versus Babson, also on Tuesday at 7:00 pm.