Springfield, Mass. - August 30, 2025 -  For the first time Springfield College women's volleyball history, the program won the Joel B. Dearing '79 Volleyball Classic after beating Skidmore, 3-1, and Rivier, 3-0, today. Tori Colosimo (Fairport, N.Y.) was named the Most Valuable Player while Aubrey Hughes (Liberty Hill, Texas) and Jodi Saelua (Mililani, Hawaii) were also named to the All-Tournment Team. 

Springfield, which was receiving votes in this week's AVCA/TARAFLEX Division III National Poll, improves to 3-0 on the season. Skidmore is 1-1 on the season while Rivier is 1-2. The Pride defeated Skidmore by scores of 25-20, 23-25, 25-22, 25-18 and Rivier by scores of 25-16, 25-15, 25-15.

Springfield will return to action next weekend at the Haverford Invitational playing the host Fords on Friday before taking on Scranton and Lynchburg on Saturday.

Springfield 3, Skidmore 1

Hughes led the Pride with team-highs in kills (15), block assists (4), and aces (6) as she hit .480 (15-3-25). Emily Keaveney (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) registered 16 digs and 13 kills, while Olivia Nealy (Athens, Ga.) posted a team-high 20 digs. Tori Colosimo (Fairport, N.Y.) registered 48 assists while adding six digs and four kills to her statline.

It was back and forth between both teams before Springfield got its seventh point and didn't look back. Skidmore led 9-6 until the Pride went on a 9-1 run to go ahead 15-10 which was highlighted by four kills from Alexa Bonato (Orange, Conn.). The Pride won the first set 25-20 as a swing by Hughes and an error by Skidmore sealed the first.

With a plethora of lead changes, the second set came down to the final few points. Both teams capitalized on service errors from one another to keep them in the game. Kills from Saelua and Ahunna James (Plainville, Mass.) kept Springfield in it until the end, but ione final Pride error gave the set to Skidmore, 25-23. 

Springfield scored the first point in the third set, but Skidmore then scored four-straight. The Pride were able to reset and then went on a 10-3 run that was highlighted by kills from Saelua and Keaveny along with aces from Nealy and Aurissa Boardman (Brooklyn, Conn.). 

In the fourth set, the Pride jumped out to a quick 8-2 lead following two kills and an ace from Hughes and built the lead to as many as eight at 20-12 before going on to win 25-18.

Springfield 3, Rivier 0

Bonato registered a team-high nine kill and six aces while adding three digs in match two against Rivier, while Keaveney had seven kills and added 11 digs. Tori Colosimo (Fairport, N.Y.) had 28 assists and 7 kills and hit .667 (7-1-9). In total six student-athletes from Springfield notched at least five kills against the Raiders.

Once the Pride scored their 11th point to tie up the set, they went on a 15-5 run to win it 25-16 with Bonato having a strong showing recording multiple kills and aces within the run.

The Pride continued to put pressure on the Raiders and jumped out to earlier leads in the final two sets of the match winning both by 25-15 scores. In the second tied at seven, Springfield ripped off eight of the next ten points to push the lead to six before Hughes and Colosimo terminated the set with back-to-back kills. A 5-1 lead in the third eventually ballooned to nine at 18-9. After trading points Hughes finished a pass from Delaney McGee (Holden, Mass.) and Avery Chandler (Stoneville, N.C.) ended the match with one final swing through the middle.

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