Women’s Volleyball Splits in Tri-Match with Simmons and NEC

NASHUA, N.H. – The Rivier women's volleyball team hosted a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) volleyball tri-match on Saturday at Collignon Gymnasium, falling to Simmons in straight sets before coming out on top against New England Col. in five sets to sit at 6-3 on the season. The Raiders fell by set scores of 21-25, 16-25, 25-27 to the Sharks in the morning match before besting the Pilgrims by set scores of 25-21, 20-25, 23-25, 25-17, 15-9.

Rivier will continue GNAC play in a midweek match at St. Joseph (Conn.) on Wednesday, Sept. 27. at 6:00 p.m. atCalhoun Gymnasium.

Simmons 3, Rivier 0

Despite 13 kills at a .550 pace from Lily Sills, the Raiders hit .080 in the opening match of the day as Simmons cruised to a 3-0 victory.

Ryan Hicks recorded 22 assists and six digs, while Sofia Pawlusik and Kaitlyn Miller each notched eight digs apiece.

Simmons' Clair Conners would lead her squad with 10 kills at a .250 clip, as the Sharks setters combined to dish out 24 assists. Meghan Doxsee would record five digs and four total blocks in the contest.

Rivier 3, New England Col. 2

In the opening set, there would be 11 tie scores and six lead changes as the Raiders battled to take the first set, 25-21. After a Tatiana Sampson ace cut the Pilgrims' deficit to one, a side-out kill from Callie Nanos and back-to-back aces from Sills would give Rivier a 1-0 advantage in the match. Rivier used four kills from Brynn Roche on seven errorless attacks (.571) to hit .242 in the frame. NEC utilized a well-rounded approach on offense to hit .360 as a team, as five separate Pilgrims recorded two kills, but the effort would not be enough.

Trailing 5-4 in the second set, the Pilgrims would rattle off five straight points to take a 9-5 advantage. From there, the Raiders would never get closer than three points as NEC tied the match up at 1-1. Ryan Hicks recorded double-digit assists in the set with 11.

The lead changes were plentiful in a chaotic third set which went in favor of New England Col. by the narrow margin of 25-23. Torrance Robertson would take over for the visitors, as she recorded five kills at a .444 percentage to help pace the Pilgrims' offense and give her team a 2-1 advantage.

The Raiders, in a do-or-die fourth set, would find themselves trailing 17-12 following an NEC kill and a pair of errors. After an NEC service error made it 17-13, Hannah Raab would get the serve for Rivier and hold onto it for the remainder of the set, as Rivier rattled off 12 consecutive points to win the set, 25-17, and force a fifth set. Raab dropped in two aces in that stretch of serving.

The Pilgrims would burn an early timeout in the fifth set after a pair of Sills kills made it 5-2 in favor of the home team. After Nanos recorded a kill and ace in back-to-back fashion to make it 9-3, NEC would use their final timeout. From there, the Raiders would fend off the Pilgrims to complete the comeback, and earn the split.

Sills hit .438 on the outing, leading all players with 18 kills. Hicks fished out 47 assists while Pawlusik dug 26 NEC attacks. Raab was credited with six of the team's 17 aces in the match, compared to seven for the Pilgrims.