Gulls Struggle Offensively, Fall 3-0 to Seahawks

BEVERLY, Mass.-  Endicott and Salve Regina met in a pivotal Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) volleyball match on Wednesday night and the Seahawks offense would prove to be too much for the Gulls as the visitors left with a 3-0 sweep.  Salve used a potent offensive attack to stun Endicott as the Gulls struggled to maintain any consistency on their side of the net.  With the loss, Endicott falls to 11-12 (2-2 CCC) on the season while Salve improves to 14-7 (4-1 CCC).

The Seahawks would claim a close first set, edging out the Gulls 25-21 behind a steady offense that totaled 15 kills while hitting at a .250 average.  Salve rode the hot hand of senior Jennifer Duggan (Merrimack, N.H.) as the outside notched six of her match high 15 kills in the first, while hitting at a .308 clip.  Kat Mendes (New Bedford, Mass.) and Emily Lipinski (Hampden, Mass.) also played well offensively to start as they closed the set with four (4-1-9 .333) and three (3-0-4 .750) kills respectively as setter Taylor Violet (Tiverton, R.I.) dished out 13 assists.

On the other side, Endicott could only muster 10 kills while hitting .073.  Elise Morgan (Holbrook, Mass.) led the offense with three kills while Tori McIntyre (San Diego, Calif.), Kelli Sugrue (Tewksbury, Mass.) and Hayley Knapp (San Diego, Calif.) all tallied two in the first.  Libero Erika Trudon (Coventry, Conn.) was everywhere defensively, picking up a set high nine digs.

The visitors would come out on fire in the second and record a 25-13 second set win to go up 2-0 in the match.  Duggan tied with Erin McGloin (West Islip, N.Y.) for the team lead in kills with five as McGloin hit .571 (5-1-7), second only to Mendes' 1.000 (2-0-2).  Violet pioleted an efficient offense that hit .355 as a team (15-4-31) on her way to picking up 14 more assists.  Libero Diana Tauro (Melrose, Mass.) led the defensive efforts with nine digs.

Endicott would look to rally in the third but would fall 25-23 to lose the match 3-0.  Both offenses struggled in the third as Salve out-hit Endicott .095 to .051.  Lauren Sheehan (Bainbridge, Wash.) came off the bench to spark the Gulls' offense and led the team with four kills on nine swings while VandeMerkt added nine more assists to finish with 21 on the match.  Tudon again picked up a set high six digs to finish the match with a match high 21 digs in the losing effort.  

The Seahawks were led by Duggan and Katelyn Beauregard (Dartmouth, Mass.) who eached finished with four kills.  Beauregard finished hitting a team high .375 (4-1-8) in the set, and second in the match with an 8-2-19 (.319) line.  Violet added 11 more assists in the third to give her 42 for the match while Tauro finished with a team high 17 digs.  Duggan led the team with 15 kills while coming one dig shy of a double-double while Lipinski hit at a match high .333 (6-2-12) clip.

With the loss, Endicott falls to 11-12 (2-2 CCC) on the season while Salve improves to 14-7 (4-1 CCC).  Endicott returns to action on Saturday when they head to Medford, Mass. to play Amherst and host Tufts at 3:00 and 5:00 p.m.  Salve Regina is also off until Saturday when they travel to New London, Conn. to take on Eastern Conn. and Coast Guard.