COLCHESTER, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College women's volleyball team opened Northeast 10 Conference play by sweeping past Southern New Hampshire University, 3-0 (25-8, 25-17, 25-19), on Tuesday in the Ross Sports Center.
RECORDS
- Saint Michael's (4-11, 1-0 NE10), Southern New Hampshire (0-15, 0-2 NE10)
SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS
- Senior Ella Patterson (Folsom, Calif./Vista Del Lago), 10 kills, 6 aces, 4 digs
- Senior Dana Welch (Howell, N.J./Donovan Catholic), 7 kills
- Junior Grace Almeida (Clifton Park, N.Y./Shenendehowa), 6 kills, .417 hitting, 2 aces, 2 blocks
- Junior Ashley Marshall (Escondido, Calif./Escondido Charter), 24 assists, 12 digs
- Sophomore Anna Daggett (Hinesburg, Vt./Champlain Valley Union), 16 digs, 6 assists
- Sophomore D'Niaya Settles (Ames, Iowa/Ames), 7 kills, .375 hitting
- First-year Lillie King (Livermore, Calif./Carondelet), 2 blocks
- First-year Caitlin Mediate (Portsmouth, R.I./Portsmouth), 9 assists, 2 aces
- First-year Rory Tower (Fountain Hills, Ariz./Desert Mountain), 8 kills, .700 hitting
OPPONENT LEADERS
- Graduate student Meri Ibrahimi, 11 digs
- Sophomore Ariana Davila, 10 assists, 7 digs
- First-year Julia Peterson, 4 kills, .444 hitting, 3 blocks
MATCH FACTS
- The Purple Knights downed the Penmen at home for the first time since Oct. 11, 2016. They also swept Southern New Hampshire on Sept. 27 and own a pair of series victories in the same season for the first time.
- Saint Michael's held sizable advantages in aces (13-2), kills (45-15) and digs (47-34) while hitting .265 to the Penmen's .037.
THE ACTION
- Patterson had three kills in a five-point span early in the first set, and the Purple Knights pushed a 4-3 lead into a 9-4 advantage before capping the set with a closing 15-1 run. Settles had six kills in that stretch.
- Up 13-10 in the second set, the hosts slowly extended their lead to 21-13, and the lead never shrunk to less than five.
- Mediate's kill made it 18-5 in set No. 3 before the Penmen countered with a 12-3 run against a lineup featuring many of the hosts' reserves, rallying within four points on three occasions. Tower came up with a pair of kills down the stretch before Patterson dropped a clinching kill.
NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S MATCH
- Saturday vs. American International College, 2 p.m.
- AIC won the 2024 NE10 Championship and advanced to the NCAA East Regional Championship final.
