DARTMOUTH, Mass. – Powered by strong offensive performances from senior
Devon Laing and junior
Kate Wade, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth women's volleyball team came away with a dominant, 3-0 (25-15, 25-7, 29-27) win over Wentworth on Wednesday. The Corsairs improve to a record of 8-6 with Little East Conference action around the corner. The Leopards fall to 8-5 with the loss.
Wentworth jumped ahead early in the opening set, taking a 14-11 lead, causing UMD's Head Coach
Justin Turco to take his first time out of the day. The Corsairs came out of the timeout on fire, rattling off seven points in a row during Laing's service. Wade tallied three kills within that stretch as the Corsairs took a 18-15 lead. After the Leopards added a point to bring it within two, sophomore
Emily Pogorelec took over the serve, and led the Corsairs on another seven-point stretch as they took a dominant 25-15 win in the first set.
The Corsairs had even more dominant second set, carrying the momentum from the end of the first set into a massive 21-2 lead in the second set. Pogorelec kicked off that run with a 9-point stretch on her serves, including three straight aces. That run included another eight-point stretch on Wade's service. The Corsairs went on to take the set in dominant fashion, 25-8.
UMass Dartmouth continued to pour it on early in the third set, jumping out to a 9-4 lead early on. Wentworth wasn't ready to concede defeat yet, as they battled back and took a 19-18 lead. The two teams went back-and-forth trading points in the third set, until a final kill by Wade put UMD up by two at 29-27 to wrap up the contest, 3-0 in the Corsairs' favor.
Leading the attack for the Corsairs was Laing with a game-high 13 kills, an assist and an ace. Wade added 10 kills of her own. Freshman
Skye Peters continues to shine from the setter position with another 25-set assist performance. She also added two aces and a kill. Pogorelec lead the way defensively, tallying a game-high 25 digs. Pogorelec also recorded six total service aces. Junior
Chelsea Sanker and senior
Maggie Sullivan each had three solo-blocks, with Sullivan adding another block assist on top of that.
Leading the way for Wentworth was freshman Kate McLane with nine kills, two blocks and nine digs. Amanda Zweifler led her team with 24 digs. Kinsey Lutz led the team with 21 set assists while also recording 10 digs.
The UMass Dartmouth women's volleyball team will stay put as they host Southern Maine on Saturday, September 30. The 1:00PM match will be the Corsairs' first LEC meeting of the season, and is the SAAC Game of the Week.
