Worcester, Mass. - Behind 11 kills and nine
digs from sophomore Kristin McGinty (Vail, Colo.)
host Clark University snapped an eight match losing streak to the
United States Coast Guard Academy with a thrilling come-from-behind
3-2 win over the visiting Bears in front of a raucous crowd at the
Kneller Athletic Center in NEWMAC women's volleyball action.
The win for the Cougars ended a losing streak to USCGA that dated
back to October 27, 2001. The Bears had dominated the series in
such fashion that Clark hadn't won a game in any meeting since
their 2001 victory.
That all changed in this meeting as the Cougars raced out to leads
of 14-4 and 24-7 before settling for a 25-9 win in game one.
Coast Guard rebounded in games two and three, registering wins by
scores of 25-15 and 25-22. Game three looked to be in the Cougars
favor after they held a 22-21 edge following a kill from
Nicole Sullivan (Marshfield, Mass.). The Bears
answered back, however, getting four consecutive kills, including
three straight from Katherine Martorelli (Wyckoff, N.J.).
Clark regrouped and took the fourth game 25-14 after scoring the
final eight points when the score was 17-14.
The fifth game saw the Cougars take a 2-1 lead and never relinquish
it, although the Bears tied it up at 11-11. McGinty collected a
pair of kills sandwiched around a Martorelli kill, making the game
13-12. From their each team committed an attack error before a
service error by Coast Guard sealed the win for Clark.
In addition to McGinty's performance, Amira Tranchell (Falmouth, Mass.) posted 14 kills and Nicole
Sullivan recorded nine, three digs and four total blocks.
Freshman Emily Sullivan (Nashua, N.H.) handed out
38 assists to go along with nine digs, while Emily Visone (West Hempstead, N.Y.) had a match-high 23
digs.
Martorelli paced the Bears with 12 kills and 15 digs and setter
Karen Matic (Oswego, Ill.) chipped in with 34 assists and 10
digs.
With the win, Clark improves to 4-8 overall and 2-3 in NEWMAC
action, while USCGA drops to 13-2 and 1-2 in league action.
