New London, Conn. - September 16, 2014 - The Springfield College women's volleyball team dropped its New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) opener at Coast Guard on Tuesday night in five sets.

Final scores in favor of the Bears were 18-25, 25-18, 25-21, 17-25, 16-14.

The Pride, which has won two of the last three NEWMAC Championships, dropped to 6-3, 0-1 in league play as it played its third-consecutive five-set match. The Bears improve to 7-2, 1-0. 

Kelsey McGayhey (Shelter Island, N.Y.) had a team-best 15 kills, while Hannah Andres (West Barnstable, Mass.) totaled 10 kills and 12 digs.  Lauren Holt (Granby, Conn.) chipped in 10 kills, as did Jennifer Hurwitz (Longmeadow, Mass.) to go along with her career-best 22 digs.

Junior Ashley Dumont hit .567 with 18 kills and just one error, while sophomore Susan West added 10 kills and freshman Summer Adams finished with nine kills in the win. Sophomore Michaela McKeown led the Bears with 17 digs while freshman Michelle McGill finished with 15. Freshman Michelle Hernandez had a match-high 23 assist while junior Maggie Hine had a match-high three aces for the Bears.

In the fifth and deciding set, Springfield faced a 12-9 deficit but rallied with a 4-1 burst, capped off by an Elise Brogan (Andover, Mass.) block to earn match point.  However, after Coast Guard burned its final timeout, the hosts rattled off the final three points, with a pair of Dumont kills leading the Bears to victory.

In the opening game, the Pride scored six straight to take a 7-3 lead before the Bears tied it 7-7. Springfield led 15-13 before scoring six of the next seven for a 21-14 lead en route to the 25-18 win.  Holt, McGayhey, and Brogan all had three kills in the frame for Springfield.

After a kill from Brogan brought the Pride within two at 20-18 in the second, Coast Guard scored the final five points of the second game for a  25-18 win to even the match. The second game was tied 10 times as Springfield managed to hit just .100.

The Bears started hot in the third game by scoring the first four points and jumping out to an 8-2 lead before the Pride rallied to tie it 12-12. Springfield led 20-19 on a big block from Hurwitz, only to have Coast Guard once again come on strong down the stretch, scoring five of the final six points for the 25-21 win.  The Pride committed 11 hitting errors in the frame.

The Pride forced a fifth game with a 25-17 win in the fourth as they scored seven straight to open up a 14-6 lead and never looked back.  Andres had a team-best four kills in the stanza as the Pride hit at its highest clip all evening, .276.

Springfield will return home to play MIT in another NEWMAC showdown beginning at 1:00 pm.