BRISTOL, R.I.- The women's volleyball team knew they were up against a tough task when they traveled to Bristol, R.I. to face top seed Roger Williams on Saturday, a team that has lost just three matches on the entire season. Roger Williams came into the match ranked #1 in New England in the most recent NCAA Regional poll. To get to this point, the Gulls had to first travel to Newport, R.I. to face the #7 ranked team in the same poll in Salve Regina, who was also ranked second in the tournament. After landing one upset in Rhode Island earlier in the week, the Gulls wouldn't be able to complete the Ocean State sweep as they fell to Roger Williams 3-0 on Saturday.
Roger Williams entered the match looking for redemption from earlier in the 2013 season. One of their losses came at the hands of the Gulls when the Hawks traveled to Beverly, Mass. for Endicott's Homecoming match. In October, Endicott would hand Roger Williams, the #22 ranked team nationally at that point, their first loss of the season in a five set thriller. In that match, the Gulls received a well rounded team effort that thrived on containing the Roger Williams attack and limited their scoring runs. The Hawks proved to be too much to handle on Saturday in the rematch as they rode the hot arm of CCC Player of the Year Krystie Luczynski to victory. In the match, Luczynski hit an astounding .792 as she recorded a match high 19 kills on 24 errorless swings. The middle also recorded a match high five blocks (2 solo, 3 assist) on the day.
The Gulls were led by All-CCC First Team member Callie Dolan (Westford, Mass.) as the senior outside led the team with 12 kills and 12.0 points on her way to a .273 clip. Endicott also received solid offensive contributions from oustide Tori McIntyre (San Diego, Calif.) and Lexi Watts (San Diego, Calif.) as the two combined for 11 kills and just two errors on 33 attempts. McIntyre also finished second on the team in digs with six.
Leading the Gulls' defensive charge was sophomore Jackie Cone (Salem, N.H.) as she picked up seven digs in the match. Freshman libero Erika Trudon (Coventry, Conn.) pitched in with five digs of her own and a team leading three aces. Setter Alleigh VandeMerkt (Riverside, Ill.) finished with a match high 30 assists and now has accumulated 1,260 assists on the season, good enough for the fourth best single season in Endicott history. If Endicott is to move on in further post season play, VandeMerkt stands just 17 assists out of the top three all-time and 56 out of second. Senior Callie Dolan also now stands at 386 kills on the season, good for fifth best in single season history.
The Gulls, who have reached the conference championship match eight of the last 10 years, now await word of a possible post season berth. Fields for all tournaments will be announced on Monday by 5:00 p.m. Endicott now stands at 21-15 overall, marking the seventh time in the last ten years the team as eclipsed the 20 win mark.
