New London, Conn. – October 31, 2009 – The trio of Heather Lively, Sarah Lang-Rodean, and Lauren Torvi combined for 51 kills as the Springfield College women’s volleyball team picked up a crucial five-game victory at Coast Guard in its regular-season finale.
The win gives Springfield a 26-6 overall record on the season, and 7-2 in New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference play. The Pride locked up the third seed in the upcoming NEWMAC Tournament, which will begin on Tuesday at home at 7 pm versus Smith. Springfield will be the #3 seed, while Smith will be the #6-seed..
SC took the match by the game scores of 25-15, 24-26, 25-20, 22-25, 15-9.
Lively guided Springfield with a team-best 20 kills, while Torvi totaled 16 and Lang-Rodean 15 in the victory. Meaghan Hart finished the match with 19 digs and Itza Nieves added 12 digs.
Freshman Lauren Bloch led Coast Guard (24-4, 6-3 NEWMAC ) with 20 kills while junior Jessica Anderson had 33 digs for the Bears, who will be the fourth-seed and who will host Babson in the quarterfinal round of the NEWMAC Tournament.
Springfield led two sets to one and jumped out to an early 5-1 lead in the fourth, but the Bears rallied and closed out the set with back-to-back aces by freshman Karen Matic to win 25-20 and force a fifth set. Matic had a triple-double with 40 assists, 15 digs and 10 kills for the Bears.
The Pride scored the first six points of the fifth set and the Bears could not recover, getting as close at 9-4 before falling 15-9.
Freshman Catherine Walker added 14 kills in the loss for the Bears, who were without freshman sensation Keriann Mason for the final two sets. She was injured in the third set and did not return.
