Beacons Invitational Day One: Gulls 3, Tufts 1

MEDFORD, Mass. – On day one of the Beacons Invitational, hosted by UMass Boston and held at Tufts, the Endicott women's volleyball face off against the #2 and #4 ranked teams in New England looking to gain momentum heading into the final two weeks of the regular season.

Match One: Endicott 2, UMass Boston 3 (25-21, 25-16, 26-28, 22-25, 15-8)

The Gulls battled the New England's #2 ranked UMass Boston Beacons to a five-set loss on day of the Beacons Invitational as freshmen Jackie Cone (Salem, N.H.) and Mackenzie Guerre (Carlsbad, Calif.) combined for 29 kills to pace the attacking game and senior libero Ashley Norley (Sudbury, Mass.) amassed 28 digs to lead the defense.

Endicott suffered 25-21 and 25-16 losses in sets one and two before turning it around in the third set.  Facing match-point at 24-20 in the third set, Endicott rallied to win four straight points to extend the set thanks to two kills by Guerre, a strike by Cone, and a UMass Boston error.  With the score knotted at 26-26, the Beacons saw two of their attacks fall for errors to hand Endicott a 28-26 win.

Trailing 2-1 in the match, the Blue and Green quickly fell behind 7-2 but eight points in-a-row catapulted the Gulls into the set lead.  Endicott and UMass Boston went back-and-forth until another three-point rally by the Gulls after being tied 22-22 forced a fifth set.  Again, Cone and Guerre came up big at the end of the set by recording the 24^th and 25^th points for Endicott.

Endicott junior Callie Dolan (Westford, Mass.) scored the first point of the fifth set with her seventh kill of the match, but the Beacons scored the next four points to go up 4-1 and led 8-6 as the two teams exchanged sides.  The Gulls managed to only score two more times UMass Boston 15-8 in set five and won the match 3-2.  

Match Two: Endicott 3, Tufts 1 (26-24, 25-18, 23-25, 27-25)

Guerre followed up a strong match one performance with a stellar 16-kill, five-block effort against the #4 ranked team in New England, Tufts, as the Gulls walked out of day one of the Beacon Invitational with a split.   

Norley's 30-dig effort versus the Jumbos was just four shy of her career-high.  Senior Falyn Torelli (Pelham, N.Y.) and junior Carly Beers (Traverse City, Mich.) added nine digs each and senior Gillian Kucharski (Avon, Conn.) another eight in a strong defensive effort by the Gulls. 

Dolan joined Guerre in double digit kills with 10 while freshman Jackie Cone (Salem, N.H.) and sophomore Hannah Dahlgren (Queensbury, N.Y.) contributed effectively with nine and eight digs, respectively. 

As a team, Endicott hit .213 over four matches but were especially efficient in sets two and four with .343 and .333 attacking percentages.  Defensively, they tallied 14 blocks.

Vandemerkt totaled 44 assists to finish her strong day one effort as the team's setter. 

Tomorrow, Endicott faces two difficult opponents including Southwestern (Texas) and Christopher Newport, who was in the 2011 NCAA DIII Championship runner up.