Volleyball drops 3-0 MASCAC tilt to Worcester State

North Adams, MA- The visiting Worcester State Volleyball team rallied from a first set deficit and then cruised home as they defeated the MCLA Trailblazers 3-0 (29-27, 25-21, 25-10) this evening in the Amsler Campus Center Gym in Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletics Conference (MASCAC) action.  The matchup pitted the top two teams midway through the conference season.  The Lancers improve to 3-1 (4-17 overall) in the conference while the Trailblazers (11-6 overall) suffer their first defeat in league play and sit at 3-1 as well.

MCLA led most of the way in the opening set and after an Anais Badio kill, they led 19-16.  The Lancers immediately answered however scoring four straight points to take a 20-19 lead.  They would later lead 23-21 and 24-23 with a chance to close the set, but MCLA made it difficult.  Julia Graham and Elizabeth Brown combined for a key block to knot things up at 24-24.  The teams would trade points from there until Worcester finally earned the set win.  With the score at 27-27, Worcester's Erin Gaffney, who recorded a match best 8 kills, hammered one down to give the visitors a 28-27 lead.  A hitting error on the next volley gave the Lancers a marathon 29-27 set win and they were up 1-0.

The Lancers trailed early in the second set as MCLA looked to tie things up.  MCLA led 14-12 midway through the set before the Lancers went on a 7-1 spurt to take control and lead 19-15.  MCLA got within two points at 20-18, but the Lancers had the answer and earned the 25-21 win putting them up 2-0.

In the third set, Worcester never trailed.  They led 9-6 early before rattling off six straight points.  They would never look back collecting a 25-10 win and earn the sweep.

Worcester State was led by Gaffney's team best 8 kills on 22 attacks.  The well balanced offense for the Lancers was aided by 7 kills from Kate Stedronsky and six apiece from Emily Dardinski and Kaitlin Cueva.  Setter Megan Bardis was outstanding notching 33 assists to lead all players.  Camryn Burgio led the defense with 26 digs.

MCLA was paced by Badio's 8 kills in defeat.  Chloie Garber added 6 kills and 14 digs.  Victoria Tynan came off the bench to collect a career best 24 assists.  Ellie Walter-Goodspeed had 16 digs to pace the defense.

The Trailblazers are back in action on Thursday night when they host Castleton.