NORTHAMPTON, Mass. -- The Wellesley College volleyball team opened up New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play with a 3-1 victory on the road at Smith College. The Blue dropped the first set, but took the final three for the 24-26, 25-18, 25-18, 25-15 victory.  It was the first loss of the season for the Pioneers (3-1, 0-1 NEWMAC), while Wellesley improves to 5-2 (1-0 NEWMAC).

Early kills from Rosa Drummond and Blair Bell put Smith up 2-1 in the first set, and the Pioneers  opened up a 9-4 lead that forced Wellesley into a timeout.  Another kill from Bell upped the lead to 12-7, and the Blue called another timeout down 21-16.  Wellesley pulled withing two points at 23-21, but could get no closer as the Pioneers took the set 26-24.

Wellesley and Smith went back and forth in set two, with Bell evening the set at seven.  A 7-2 run for the Blue put them up by a 14-9 count, and never let Smith back in the game, winning the set at 25-18 and evening the set.  The third set was almost identical, with the two teams tied at six, but an 8-4 run by Wellesley puntucated by a service ace from Vivian Hu put the Blue up 14-10, and though an ace from Sonia Brown ulled Smith within 22-17, the Blue finished off the set by a 25-18 score.

The Blue finished the final set off on an 11-1 spurt - tied at 14, the Blue took over the game thanks to aces from Hu and Traci Hamanaka.

Leading the stat sheet for the Blue, Caitlin Laughlin recorded a career-high 14 kills while also posting two blocks. Kellyn O'Brady also hit a career high, tallying 17 digs, adding 12 kills and four blocks.

Amanda Duritsch ended the night with an eight-kill, four-block performance, while Hilary Ayers dished out a career-high of 38 assists. Rounding out the leaders for Wellesley,  Hamanaka picked up 19 digs, while Hu added 16.

Smith will continue NEWMAC play with a visit from Babson College on Saturday at 1 p.m.  Wellesley will host WPI, also on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Release courtesy Smith Sports Information