Springfield, Mass. – October 10, 2023 – The Springfield College women's volleyball team took down Coast Guard in a straight-set victory on Tuesday night in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play.  The Pride took the match by the scores of 25-19, 25-21, 25-19. 

Springfield, which continues to climb up the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA)/TARAFLEX Division III national poll, won its 13th-consecutive match to improve to 17-1, 6-0 against conference foes.  Coast Guard dropped to 13-6, 3-3.

Riley Donahue (South Windsor, Conn.) led all players with 16 kills, Natalie Billet (Commack, N.Y.) contributed nine kills and nine digs, and Ally Townsend (Hummelstown, Pa.) racked up 14 digs and five aces.  Tori Colosimo (Fairport, N.Y.) finished the evening with 27 assists, six digs, two aces, and two blocks. 

Springfield jumped out to an 11-7 lead in the first after Billet used the Coast Guard block for a kill as the visitors burned an early timeout.  The lead would grow to 20-15 on a Townsend ace and Springfield would take the 25-19 win after a Coast Guard swing sailed long.  Donahue accounted for six of the Pride's 14 kills in the opening frame.

In the second, back-to-back aces from Townsend allowed the Pride to surge ahead 8-3 in the early going.  The Bears would battle back to tie things up for the seventh time in the frame at 17-17, only to have Donahue and Billet connect on kills before Donahue blistered an ace to make it a three-point edge for the hosts. Springfield would pull away with the 25-21 win, with Billet hammering her sixth kill of the set off the block on set point to cap off a stanza where the Pride had 15 kills at a .345 clip.

Even at 6-6 in the third, Springfield used a 5-1 burst capped off by a kill by Maeve Voltz (Bay Shore, N.Y.) to force Coast Guard into a timeout.  Springfield's lead would balloon to 23-13 on a Colosimo ace and Billet sealed the 25-19 win as she crafted a kill around the Bears block. 

Springfield hits the court again on Thursday in a non-conference match at Amherst beginning at 7 pm.

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