By Alex Solari, Staff Writer
The UMass Dartmouth women’s volleyball team defeated two teams they faced this week, but were unable to defeat one.
On Tuesday, October 18, the team faced Nichols College at the Tripp Center.
The Corsairs started off strong when Christina Spinazola, senior captain of the team, helped her team get a quick 5-0 lead with her starting serve. This extended to a nine-point lead when Jillian Sykora regained the serve. With first-year Nicole Silverman’s two service aces sandwiched between Olivia Wallett’s kill, the set ended with a comfortable win of 25-13.
The Nichols College Bisons took the lead in the second set, when Megan Gardiner made a kill that set the score at 7-6. The Corsairs turned the set around with first-year Meghan Mullinax’s serve, bookended with Anita Sergara’s two kills that ended the set with 25-18.
The third set was a close one, with neither team able to get a lead above four. Bison J’ena Baker’s kill tied the score at 15, but Spinazola’s assists on Taila Roberson’s kill put the Corsairs up by one. This move by Spinazola recorded her 2000th career assist.
Bison Monica Pucko contributed two block assists in three points, to help Nichols obtain a three- point lead, but Nichols errors put UMass Dartmouth back in the game. With the set tied at 24, Bison attack errors gave Corsairs a win of 26-24. The game ended with a 3-0 win by UMass Dartmouth.
On Thursday, October 20, the Corsairs faced St. Joseph’s College on the UMass Dartmouth court.
In the first set, the two teams were neck and neck until Christina Spinazola fed senior Kayla Kirby and Anita Sengara for back-to-back kills, where they took a 10-9 lead. This caused the St. Joseph’s Blue Jays to take a timeout.
After this timeout, Sengara made another kill, and the Corsairs won the set with a score of 25-17.
The Blue Jays turned the game around by posting 17 kills to the Corsairs nine. Blue Jay Shytasia Williams connected for six kills and St. Joseph’s won the set with a score of 25-21.
The Corsairs dominated the last two sets, with a total of 24 kills. Sengara served UMass Dartmouth to a 8-1 lead in the third set, which led the Blue Jays to call another timeout. After the timeout though, the trend lasted and Roberson and Sengara were able to fire off 10 of the 15 kills the Corsairs made. This led to a 25-18 Corsair win.
In the last set, UMass Dartmouth had strong net defense, and finished with four blocks to secure a 25-15 win. Kirby had a monster solo block at 23-15, and Sengara ended the game with two solo swats of her own. The score ended with 3-1 with a Corsair victory.
On Saturday, October 22, UMass Dartmouth faced Western Connecticut State University on WCSU’s court. In the first set, the teams traded points until WCSU Colonials took the lead with Danielle Kamisky’s two service aces, along with the team’s two kills that gave them a five-point lead. The first set ended with 25-17 lead by the hosts.
The Corsairs were able to take the lead in the second set, with a seven-point advantage that led the Colonials to take a timeout. After the timeout, the Colonials were able to get within two points of the Corsairs until first-year Meghan Mullinax served her team back to a seven point advantage with a score of 16-9.
With the score at 21-11, Kamisky served four-straight points and assisted on five kills in seven-straight points during Jacqueline Kanuk’s serve. Two more kills from WCSU’s Karissa Smith gave the Colonials a win with a 25-23 set.
The Colonials were able to get a 15-10 lead in the third set, with Kamari King’s series of kills. The Corsairs tried to come back with two block assists by Emily West and Taila Roberson in the final five points, but they were unable to stop WCSU success. The third set ended with 25-20, and WCSU won 3-0.
Next week, the Corsairs will be facing Rhode Island College on Tuesday, October 25, Suffolk University on Thursday, October 27, and will be facing both Plymouth State and Salem State on Saturday, October 29 on the Plymouth State court.