Women's Volleyball sweeps JWU for 1st place in GNAC

(Nashua, N.H.) The Rivier University Women's Volleyball team took care of business tonight as they defeated Johnson and Wales University, 3-0 in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference contest inside the Muldoon Gymnasium.

The Raiders have now won 15 consecutive GNAC contests dating back to last season are now 22-5 overall on the season and a perfect 8-0 in conference play. The Wildcats suffer just their first conference loss and are now 7-1 GNAC and 16-6 overall.

Rivier took the game by scores of 25-17, 25-20 and 25-23.

The junior tandem of Dana Mott (Medway, Mass.) and Lauren Silverman (Chelmsford, Mass.) once again led the offensive attack for the Raiders. Silverman hammered down 13 kills and recorded a .611 hitting percentage while Mott registered 14 kills – team high – and a .522 hitting percentage. Senior Emily O'Reilly (San Francisco, Calif.) directed the offense with 37 assists and freshman Hayley Macken (Clifton Park, N.Y.) led the team with 15 digs. Junior Molly McCormack (Ballston Lake, N.Y.) had 8 kills and 10 digs in the win for Rivier.

The Wildcats saw freshman Nastasia Kapustin (West Nyack, N.Y.) obtain the team high of 8 kills and freshman Emily Kalmink (Byron Center, Mich.) had five kills to pace the offense. Senior Kellen Tensen (New Canaan, Conn.) contributed with 15 helpers and 7 digs. Matching Tensen with the team high of 7 digs was senior Paula Cadavid (Pawtucket, R.I.) while freshman Monica Cordova (Jersey City, N.J.) and sophomore Julianna Zaharias (Long Beach, N.Y.) finished with six digs each.

Both teams will be back in action on Saturday. The Raiders will travel to Newton, Mass. for a GNAC tri-match at Mount Ida with Saint Joseph's College. The first match will be against SJC beginning at 6pm. Johnson and Wales will travel to Coast Guard for a non-conference tri-match along with Connecticut College. First game is scheduled to start at 12pm.