BEVERLY, Mass.- Endicott's women's volleyball team struggled offensively against Connecticut College as the Camels upended the Gulls 3-0 in the final match of the tri-match. Endicott could only muster a .026 hitting percentage as a team while Conn. was able to hit at a .267 clip. The loss drops Endicott to 10-19 overall while Conn. College, the #2 ranked team in New England, improves to 18-2 on the season.
Endicott was led offensively by Hannah Dahlgren (Queensbury, N.Y.) as the sophomore middle notched six kills on 10 attempts with only one error for a .500 average. The rest of the team struggled as Endicott recorded only 19 kills on 76 attempts with 17 errors. Callie Dolan (Westford, Mass.) was able to pick up four kills of her own as Jackie Cone (Salem, N.H.) and Mackenzie Guerre (Carlsbad, Mass.) each picked up three. Alleigh VandeMerkt (Riverside, Ill.) tallied 17 assists and five digs on the match while Ashley Norley (Sudbury, Mass.) led the Gulls with 14.
Rachel Schroff (Palos Verdes, Calif.) led the Camels of Connecticut College as the opposite was nearly unstoppable en route to hitting .391 in the match. Schroff picked up 11 kills on 23 attempts with only two errors while also assisting on three blocks. Katie Ketcham (San Francisco, Calif.) was masterful as she ran the offense. Ketcham picked up 30 assists as she consistently put her hitters in places where they could succeed. Caroline Martin (Palo Alto, Calif.) and Cailyn Straubel (Dallas, Tx.) each hit over .300 for the match and both were able to put home seven kills. Martin led Connecticut in digs with 12.
Caroline Martin got the Camels off to a strong start as the freshman was able to record a kill on the second point of the match and then go on a three point serving run that included two aces making the score 4-1. The teams would trade points as Endicott was able to close the gap to one at 4-5 when Mackenzie Guerre recorded her second kill of the match. After that it was all Camels as Conn. was able to win easily 25-14.
Set two proved to be the closest of the three sets as the Gulls stood up one at 18-17 after a Camel hitting error. The Camels would then go on an eight point run to win 25-18 in impressive fashion. The run was highlighted by Jamie Balkin (Glencoe, Ill.) serving for seven straight points and Rachel Schroff and Cailyn Straubel each recording two kills.
Set three saw the Camels once again come out strong as they were able to open up a 12-2 advantage early in the set before holding off a late Endicott surge. The 12-2 start was a result of five Conn. kills, a Caroline Martin ace and multiple Endicott errors. That hole would prove to be too much for the Gulls to overcome as the final score closed at 25-19. Endicott was able to climb back into the match behind nice serving and defense from Jessica Petrucci (Cape Coral, Fla.) as well as some offense from Guerre and Dolan.
Endicott is now off until Wednesday when they play host to Curry for Senior Night. Conn. is off until Friday when they play host to Hamilton at 8 p.m.
