Courtesy Westfield State Sports Information

WESTFIELD – Westfield State University captured the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) women’s volleyball regular season championship with a 3-0 victory (25-20, 25-19, 25-23) over Bridgewater State University on Tuesday, Oct. 26.

Westfield is 17-12 overall and 5-0 in the MASCAC with one regular season match remaining at MCLA on Saturday. Bridgewater (11-10, 4-2) is tied for second place with Worcester State.

The Owls have now won or shared the conference regular season championship four consecutive seasons. They also won the MASCAC outright in 2007 and 2009 and shared the regular season crown with Bridgewater in 2008.

Westfield also earned home court advantage in the MASCAC postseason tournament. The four-team single-elimination tourney is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 6, at Westfield’s Woodward Center.

Rachel Ryan, who along with Maura McLaughlin, was honored on Senior Night, led the Owls with 10 kills, 10 digs and three aces.

Ryan sparked the Owls, breaking open a back-and-forth second set with six straight service points to give Westfield a 23-18 lead. Prior to Ryan’s service run the set had been tied eight times.

 In the third set, the Owls led early 11-6 but the Bears rallied to tie the score with five straight points. Bridgewater began pulling way, with two service aces by Taylor Beck giving it a 19-15 lead.

The Bears led 21-16 on a Westfield attack error. Trailing 23-20, the Owls rattled off four straight points, including kills from Ryan and Alex Shaw. With the score tied at 24, Westfield closed out the match on a Ryan dink shot and a Bridgewater attack error.

The highlight of the first set was the 1,000^th career kill for Bridgewater senior Julie Clerc (Acushnet/New Bedford HS). Clerc finished with a game-high 14 kills and a team-high 16 digs. She now has 1,012 career kills and 1,117 career digs. Clerc is the sixth player in Bridgewater State volleyball history to reach the 1,000-kill milestone and she is just the second player to record 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs. Melissa Machado tallied 1,000 kills and 1,565 digs from 2002 to 2005.

Clerc’s magic milestone kill ignited a 7-0 that gave Bridgewater a 13-11 lead in the first game. But Westfield scored 12 of the next 17 points for a 23-18 lead.

Shaw finished with nine kills and Kerin DeGirolamo registered 35 assists and three blocks. Alyssa Stankowski had 19 digs and Kelsey Leonard finished with eight kills and four blocks.

Tayler Beck (7 kills, 3 aces, 7 digs), Melanie Appleman (20 assists) and Shelly DePina (7 kills) were Bridgewater’s other top players.