Women's Volleyball Falls to SJM and JWU in Season-Finale

THE BASICS 

Score: 
Match 1: St. Joseph's College (ME), 3 – Emmanuel College, 1 (22-25, 25-22, 25-14, 30-28)
Match 2: Johnson & Wales Univ., 3 – Emmanuel College, 0 (25-7, 25-15, 25-17)

Records: 
Emmanuel Saints (7-18, 3-10 GNAC)
St. Joseph's Monks (14-11, 7-1 GNAC)
Johnson & Wales Wildcats (10-8, 4-5 GNAC)

Location: Standish, Maine. – Alfond Center

Date: Saturday, October 29, 2022

THE LEAD – The Emmanuel College women's volleyball program dropped a pair of Great Northeast Athletic Conference matches to wrap up the 2022 campaign. EC fell to Saint Joseph's College (ME), 3-1, before dropping the regular-season finale to Johnson & Wales University, 3-0.

HOW IT HAPPENED (MATCH 1 vs. SJM)

• The Saints started the day strong with a 25-22 first set win over the Monks, hitting .207 in the set with three kills from junior Allison Doherty (Woburn, Mass.).
• The Monks flipped the score in set two with a 25-22 win to even the match at 1-1, forcing EC into 11 hitting errors in the frame.
• In the important third set, SJM raced out to a commanding 13-1 lead and cruised to a 25-14 win to keep the momentum heading into the fourth frame.
• EC looked poised to send the match into a fifth set, leading 15-9 midway through the action following another Doherty kill but the Monks answered with a 7-1 flurry to even the match at 16-16. From there, the sides traded points all the way to a 25-24 score in favor of the Saints. Emmanuel had four chances to end the set but the hosts evened the score at 25, 26, 27 and 28 before scoring back to back points on kills from Victoria Briones () to seal the 30-28 win and take the match, 3-1.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS (MATCH 1)

• Seana Phillips (Middleboro, Mass.) paced Emmanuel with 13 kills and a .364 attacking clip while Doherty finished the match with six kills to go along with 13 digs.
• Senior Kerry Shea (Tewskbury, Mass.) posted a career-high 23 digs while Tatiana Correia (Peabody, Mass.) added 22 digs.
• EC senior setter Rachel Coleman (Peabody, Mass.) dished out 33 assists to go with 13 digs for a double-double.
• Heather Darby led SJM with 13 kills to share the match-high with Philipps while Briones added nine kills and 23 digs.

HOW IT HAPPENED (MATCH 2 vs. JWU)

• Following a kill by Shea to cut the JWU lead to 10-7 midway through the opening set, the Wildcats exploded for 15 consecutive points behind the service game of Kyra Hissner to cruise to a 25-7 opening set victory.
• In set two, Hissner gave Johnson & Wales the lead for good after a kill made it 8-7 as JWU stayed in control in the 25-15 win.
• Johnson & Wales continued to push in the third set, opening up a 12-5 lead before Emmanuel fought back to cut the deficit to 12-11 following a kill by Shea.
• JWU regrouped with a 6-1 spurt to regain control of the court en route to their 25-17 win for the 3-0 sweep.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS (MATCH 2)

• Emmanuel struggled from the court, combining to hit a -.115 (20-30-87) as a team for their second lowest performance on the year.
• Philipps and first year Maeve Gaffny (North Andover, Mass.) powered EC with a team-best six kills.
• Correia registered a match-high 10 digs.
• JWU's Masina Tupea led all players with eight kills while Sarah Miller added seven kills and nine digs.
• The Wildcats finished with 12 aces in the win including a match-high six from Hissner.

UP NEXT

• The Saints season comes to a close with an overall mark of 7-18.
• Saint Joseph's (ME) sneaks into the GNAC tournament field with the No. 8 seed and will head to No. 1 Rivier University on Tuesday, Nov. 1 in the GNAC Quarterfinals at 7:00 PM in Nashua, N.H.
• Johnson & Wales secured the No. 2 seed in the GNAC tournament and will play host to No. 7 Norwich University on Tuesday, Nov. 1.