Nov. 2, 2006
BEVERLY, MA - The Endicott College women's volleyball team will play in its third straight Commonwealth Coast Conference title game this weekend after a 3-1 semifinal win over the University of New England Thursday night.
The top seeded Gulls certainly had their work cut out for them as each match was tightly contested. Endicott took an early lead in the first game thanks to a number of impressive digs by Katelyn Smith (Ballston Lake, NY/Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake) and Brittany Nolan (Monroe, CT/Masuk) as well as stellar swings from Steph Wiese (Higganum, CT/Haddam-Killingworth) and Sara Moore (Guilford, CT/Guilford).
A five point run with Meghan Hall serving looked like it would give EC some breathing room, up 16-8. However the Nor'easters would not go quietly cutting the Gulls lead to five points before EC claimed the 30-22 win.
Endicott dropped the second game 19-30 as UNE came on strong and did not let up. The lead changed hands three times in the early going before the Nor'easters started to pull away, leading by as much as 11 points.
New England took advantage of a number off errors, both offensively and defensively, to build its lead. The Gulls struggled mightily in the second game as they could not get anything going offensively due to excellent defense by UNE.
The Nor'easters seemed to dig out every ball EC hit, they also got a big boost from the play of Alexandra Toregas (Chevy Chase, MD), who was almost unstoppable in the middle.
Endicott quickly bounced back taking the third and fourth games 30-22 and 30-22 to secure the win and a trip to the CCC Championship. The Gulls fell behind early in the third game but got rolling thanks to the play of Hall and Hayley Janelle (Madbury, NH/Oyster River).
Hall seemed to cover the entire court all night long showing her versatility with 47 assists, six aces, 13 digs and one kill, while Janelle was clutch down the stretch with nine kills, five digs and one emphatic block that swung the momentum toward Endicott.
Wiese and Moore once again unloaded from the outside as they racked up 16 and 14 kills respectively. Wiese added seven digs and one ace. She also received nearly a third of UNE's serves and made just one receive error. Moore showed her ability to play both ways adding nine digs to her line.
Lauren Lundstrom (Edina, MN/Edina) also added a number of timely blocks helping Endicott to the win.
The top seeded Gulls will host the CCC title game on Saturday at 1:00 PM. Endicott will play Roger Williams (3-2 winner over Gordon) to determine the 2006 CCC Champion women's volleyball team. Endicott won the title in 2004 and lost to Colby-Sawyer in last years championship.
