Lancers Fall to Cross-Town Rival Engineers, 3-1

WORCESTER – In a cross-town non-conference tilt on Saturday afternoon, the WPI women's volleyball team defeated Worcester State 3-1 at Harrington Auditorium.

The Engineers took the first two sets by 25-14 and 27-25 scores, but Worcester State staved off elimination with a 25-23 win in game number three. WPI closed out the match with a 25-12 win to improve to 17-5 on the year, and run their winning streak to seven games.

WPI senior Amanda Wetmore (Hudson, NH) led all players with 21 kills, hitting .421 while also serving two aces and assisting on a pair of blocks.

For the Lancers (9-13), senior Leelle Tyler (Longmeadow, Mass.) had a team-high 10 kills. Natalie Gillis (Ashland, Mass.) had 11 digs.

WPI used an 11-2 run to take control of the opening match, a spurt that included five straight kills, three by Wetmore. They similarly took an 18-10 lead in the second set, but the Lancers fought back from game point to force a tie at 24 all. Sarah Ward (Townsend, MA) served that run and had an ace for the Lancers, but WPI won three of the last four points, with a block by Natalia Wierzbicki (Wareham, MA) closing out the 27-25 win.

Worcester State was able to finish the job in the third set and keep the match alive. Trailing 22-20, a kill by Gabby Alberghini (Northborough, MA) started a 5-1 run, with points by Erin Gaffney (Worcester, MA) and Angela Colonis (Waterford, CT) closing out a 25-23 victory.

Colonis had 11 assists, three kills and nine digs for the Lancers, while Ward set up 13 points and added five digs.

Sophomore Catherine Reynolds (Concord, NH) had a game-high 43 assists for WPI, along with eight digs and three kills. The Engineers never trailed in the fourth set, jumping out to a 15-5 lead and finishing the match with a kill by Wierzbicki.

Wierzbicki had five kills for the Engineers, and Paige Garland (Nashua, NH) added six kills, with each of them collecting a service ace.

Defensively, the Engineers got 10 digs from Jia Yazon (South Windsor, CT) and a game-high 17 from Suela Miloshi (Needham, MA), who had five service aces, tied with Worcester State's Camryn Burgio (Quincy, MA) for the game-high in that category.

Worcester State continues their non-conference schedule on Tuesday night, when they host Regis at 7 pm for Senior Night.

WPI will return to NEWMAC play at the same time when they head to Connecticut to play Coast Guard.