Women's Volleyball: Macken guides Raiders to a pair of 3-0 sweeps

(Keene, N.H.) The Rivier University Women's Volleyball team finished off the 2018 Granite State Challenge this afternoon with a pair of clean sweeps over New England College and Plymouth State University. The Raiders evened their overall record at 4-4 in the process and were crowned champions of the Challenge.

Game One: Rivier University 3, New England College 0 (Final)

Rivier earned the three set win with set-scores of 25-17, 25-23 and 25-16.

Junior Jessica Whyte (Plymouth, Mass.) guided the Raider offense with 12 kills and a .350 hitting percentage. Sophomore setter Katherine Antczak (Salem, N.H.) dished out 14 assists and senior Taylor White (Dunstable, Mass.) picked up a team-high nine digs. Sophomore Emma Soucy (Dunbarton, N.H.) chipped in with seven kills and a .500 hitting percentage in the victory.

The Pilgrims saw Dreka Griffin led the offense with seven kills and Tihani Ehia added four kills and 12 digs. Maggie Dadmun handed out 13 helpers while Meaghan Six scooped up 14 digs.

Game Two: Rivier University 3, Plymouth State University 0 (Final)

The Raiders finished off the Challenge with a 3-0 win over Plymouth State by set-scores of 25-18, 25-15 and 25-22.

Senior setter Hayley Macken (Clifton Park, N.Y.) directed the offense to a .529 hitting percentage as she totaled 38 assists while knocking down six kills and a 1.000 hitting percentage along with nine digs. Graduate Courtney Collins (Litchfield, N.H.) hammered down the team-high of 13 kills with Whyte and White finishing with nine and eight kills, respectively. Freshman Sydney Racevicius (Woodbury, Conn.) turned in a solid showing with seven kills, four service aces and four digs.

Plymouth State was guided by Alexis Bowers, who had six kills and 11 digs. Shannon Howland handed out 14 assists in the contest while Alisha Flanagan chipped in with five kills.
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Macken was selected to the All-Invitational team after leading the Raiders to a 3-1 second place finish. Rivier will look to climb above the .500 mark as they travel to Regis College on Thursday night for the first Great Northeast Athletic Conference contest of the season.