WESTFIELD, Mass. – The Westfield State women's volleyball team overcame an 8-1 deficit in the fifth set to pick up their first win of the season in the MASCAC opener against MCLA on Tuesday, September 26 in the Woodward Center.
The five set win (25-16, 22-25, 26-28, 25-20, 16-14) was fueled by Bridgette McAndrews (Longmeadow, Mass./ Longmeadow) who led the Owls in kills (17), digs (22) and service aces (3).
The dramatic final set was streaky as the Trailblazers jumped out to a 5-0 lead at the start, extended it to 8-1, traded the next two points, then a six point rally for the Owls closed the gap to 9-7.
MCLA's Elizabeth Brown (Lee, Mass./ Lee) picked up one of her game-high 18 kills to push the lead back to three (10-7) before the Owls rattled off another three points to knot the set at 10-10. Just when the momentum appeared to swing the Owls way, MCLA took the lead again, extending it to 13-10.
Lauren Carnes (Westfield, Mass./ Westfield) landed a kill, Allie Hill (St. Clair Shores, Mich./ Lakeview) followed with a service ace and then suffered a service error to put the game in match point in favor of the Trailblazers, 14-12.
MCLA's Audrey Melson (Champlin, Minn./ Champlin Park) connected on what appeared to be the game winning kill, rocketing it into the Owls back row where a waiting McAndrews controlled the dig, kept hope alive and ultimately a Trailblazer attack error followed by a Julia Dangel-Garcia (Ashland, Mass./ Ashland) ace evened the score at 14. An attack error for the Trailblazers followed by a Sarah Bingham (Reno, Nev./ Wooster) kill put the game away for the Owls.
Dangel- Garcia fueled a record offensive day for the Owls, connecting on a game-high 30 assists, setting up the second most team kills for Westfield State (66) in a five set match. Bingham and Carnes posted 16 and 15 kills respectively in the win. Hill helped the Owls' defense with 19 digs and Dangel- Garcia grabbed 18.
Chloie Garber (Eagle River, Alaska/ Eagle River) led the Trailblazers with 28 digs and 15 kills in the setback. Anais Badio (Las Vegas, Nev./ Community College High School West) pitched in 12 kills and 10 digs in the loss.
The Owls improve to 1-12 (1-0 MASCAC) on the season while MCLA slips to 8-3 and 0-1 in conference play.
Both teams return to action on Saturday, September 30, Westfield State heads to MIT for a tri match with the Engineers and Mount Holyoke. MCLA goes to SUNY Cobleskill for matches against Penn State Abington and Wells College.