Sept. 9, 2006
BEVERLY, MA - The Gulls swept Salve Regina, survived a marathon match against Keene State and was just edged out by Eastern Connecticut when they played host to the Endicott College Invitational on Saturday.
EC picked up their first win of the season with a three game sweep of CCC rivals Salve Regina. The Gulls won 30-19, 30-17 and 30-13 thanks to the strong play of Kim Marschner (Londonderry, NH/Londonderry) and Meghan Hall (Santa Cruz, CA/Aptos). Marschner had eight kills while Hall made 27 assists and five service aces. Brittany Nolan (Monroe, CT/Masuk) added three service aces and seven digs to help the Gulls earn the win.
In their second match of the day EC found themselves up 2-0 after taking the first two games 30-20 and 30-24 but Keene State would battle back, winning the third and fourth games 30-17 and 30-28 to force a fifth game. In the end it Endicott would prevail as they won the fifth and final game 15-11 to give them the victory in the match.
The Gulls were led by Hayley Janelle (Madbury, NH/Oyster River) and Lauren Lundstrom (Edina, MN) as they collected 13 and 10 kills respectively. Janelle also added a pair of blocks. EC once again got a great performance from Hall, who tallied 45 assists, five service aces and 11 digs over the five games.
The Owls had their share of top notch performances as Brittany O'Bryant (Merrimack, NH/Merrimack) had 17 kills, 13 digs and three blocks. Kelly Yankowski (Turners Falls, MA/Turners Falls) added 13 kills and 22 assists while Genna Florkowski (East Northport, NY/Northport) had 27 digs.
Despite losing to Endicott, KSC picked up a three game sweep of Eastern Connecticut and Salve Regina.
The Gulls only loss of the day came at the hands of Eastern Connecticut. The Warriors beat Endicott 30-23, 30-28 and 30-21 in three tightly contested games. ECSU was lifted to the win by the play of Courtney Sims (Manchester, CT/), who had eight kills, Emma Sousa (Coventry, CT/) who added five service aces and Jenn Braswell who had 16 assists. The Warriors also got help from Sandra Jaques (Milford, CT) 13 digs.
Endicott kept things close against ECSU but just seemed to run out of gas in their final match of the day. Once again Hall was an impact player for EC as she was all over the court picking up 24 assists, four kills, one service ace and seven digs. Freshmen Steph Wiese (Higganum, CT/) also had a strong showing as she added 10 kills, seven digs and one assist.
Eastern Connecticut also picked up a three game sweep over Salve Regina. With their two wins the Gulls improved to 2-6 on the year, while KSC moves to 7-2, ECSU improves to 4-4 and Salve Regina falls to 0-3.
Following final matches of the day the respective coaches nominated All Tournament players. Salve Regina had one tournament All-Star in Brittany Canaff (Paramus, NJ/) who had 15 kills in three matches. Sousa and Pricilla Dougherty (Island Park, NY/) were named All Tournament for ECSU, while O'Bryant and Yankowski earned those honors for Keene State. Meghan Hall was the Gulls All Tournament player.
The Gulls will play hosts to Tufts University on Tuesday night before opening their CCC schedule with a trip to Wentworth Thursday night.
