BEVERLY, MASS.- The Endicott Women's Volleyball squad put forth a strong effort against the #6 team in New England but ultimately fell in straight sets. The Gulls battled hard in the first set as Callie Dolan (Westford, Mass.) and Mackenzie Guerre (Carlsbad, Calif.) provided offense, but the Gulls were turned away by scores of 25-22, 25-16 and 25-21.
Mackenzie Guerre had one of her best performances of the season and it came against stiff competition in Springfield. The freshman midde was able to rack up seven kills with only one error on 14 attempts, good enough for a very impressive .429 average. Guerre kept the Springfield middles guessing as they couldn't stop her. She also chipped in an assist block.
Callie Dolan and Lexi Watts (San Diego, Calif.) also provided offense for the Gulls as Dolan recorded 10 more kills to lead the team and Watts collected seven of her own. Alleigh VandeMerkt (Riverside, Ill.) continued to run the offense and had a match high 29 assists, while also grabbing 10 digs. Ashley Norley (Sudbury, Mass.) continued to rack up the kills by accumulating 23 in the three set match.
For the Pride, junior Tessa Smolinski (Hebron, Conn.) led all players with 19 kills. The junior outside did so while only comitting three errors while taking 41 swings, good enough for a .390 average. Smolinski also played stellar defense and pitched in 10 digs to the victory. Whitney Miller (Cuba, N.Y.) ran the offense with 27 assists as libero Amy Entel (Berkley, Mass.) recorded 16 digs. Mary Consol (Long Valley, N.J.) also recorded 10 kills in the middle.
With the win, Springfield improves to 10-3 as Endicott drops to 2-9. Endicott looks to day two of the MIT Invitational as they will host Simmons at noon Colby at 4 p.m. Springfield will travel to Brandeis where they play Tufts at 11 a.m. and Bates at 2 p.m.