BEVERLY, Mass.- The Endicott College women's volleyball team fell to Coast Guard 1-3 in a tough non-conference matchup. With the loss, Endicott drops to 10-18 on the season while Coast Guard improves to 16-11. Set scores for the match were 25-13, 19-25, 14-25 and 25-27.
Endicott was able to take the first set 25-13 behind a stellar offensive outburst from the whole match as the squad hit .391. The Gulls controlled the tempo as from the opening whistle and kept the pressure on the Bears as Endicott had only one hitting error in the set while recording 10 kills on 23 attempts. Coast Guard struggled to get going out of the gate as their offense managed to hit just .029.
Set two began as if it was going to be more of the same as Endicott was able to jump out to a quick 5-0 lead behind kills from Jackie Cone (Salem, N.H.) and Mackenzie Guerre (Carlsbad, Calif.) and three errors by Coast Guard. The Bears were quick to correct their errors however and took a 13-14 lead off of a Kelsey DePorto (Frankfurt, Ill.) kill. Coast Guard never looked back from there as they took the set 19-25 that was capped by an emphatic kill for DePorto for set point.
The third set saw Coast Guard get out to another quick lead as the score sat at 5-10 just 15 points in. The Bears were able to string together multiple serving runs with Elise Sako (Cleveland, Ohio) and Samantha Marmolejo (El Paso, Tx.) leading with six and five serve attempts each. Endicott couldn't get going offensively as the Gulls hit -.026 for the set compared to Coast Guard's .429.
The fourth and deciding set was a tightly knit affair as the Gulls and Bears would need extra points to settle the match. The set saw the score be tied four times with the latest being at 25-25. The Bears were able to gain an eight point advantage with the score at 7-15 before the Gulls came storming back to tie it at 19-19. From there, no team held more than a two point advantage until the end when Coast Guard won 27-25. The Bears out-hit the Gulls .238-.144 in the fourth and final set.
Endicott was led by junior outside Callie Dolan (Westford, Mass.) as she recorded 13 kills with only four errors on 37 attempts for a .243 average. Freshman middle Guerre was close on her heals as she knocked down 12 kills on 33 attempts with only two errors for a .303 average. Alleigh VandeMerkt (Riverside, Ill.) led Endicott with 32 assists. Ashley Norley (Sudbury, Mass.) was solid on defense as the senior libero collected 15 digs. Carly Beers (Traverse City, Mich.) also played solid defense and contributed 13 digs.
Coast Guard was led by middle Kelsey DePorto as the junior hit a match-high .448 by picking up 16 kills on 29 attempts with just two errors. Kerriann Mason (Island, Calif.) tied DePorto for the match-high kills total by also picking up 16. The Bears' setter Karen Matic (Oswego, Ill.) led all players with 48 assists. Coast Guard had two players surpass the 20 plateau as Samantha Marmelejo and Kerriann Mason recorded 25 & 21 digs respectively.
Endicott is now off for a match and then resumes the final match of the tri-match against Conn. College. The Gulls are then off until Wednesday when they play host to Curry on Endicott's Senior Night starting at 7:00 p.m. Coast Guard plays Conn. College now and is then off until they host Babson on Tuesday evening.
