The Mount Ida College Women’s Volleyball Team hosted fellow GNAC member Rivier College tonight in another tough conference game with a bizarre ending that went all the way down to the wire.

Game one was all about the Raiders with a 30-24 win. The visitors capitalized on errors by the Mustangs giving them the advantage late in the game. They pulled ahead by five point at the 27-22 mark and didn’t look back going up 1-0 in the match.

The Mustangs came out hot winning the first four points, but the Raiders came right back with a run of their own scoring the next seven. It was cat and mouse with Rivier gaining the advantage with Ida coming right back to make it close. At one point, the Mustangs tied it at 23-23, but the visitors rallied on five straight points, going on to win game two.

Game three was back and forth all the way to 30, with 12 points tied, including 21 lead changes. Mount Ida refused to go quietly, taking the lead at 27-27, and winning by a score of 30-28. The charge was lead by Senior captain Adrienne Xenos (Brockton, MA/Brockton) who pushed her teammates to continue their strong effort. Freshman outside hitter Chelsea Darnell (Dublin, OH/Dublin Scioto) had two diving stops including one running into the wall to save a point. Sophomore Blair Canan (N. Reading, MA/N. Reading) had some incredible saves on tough digs that almost hit the floor.

Mount Ida woke up in game four dominating the action winning 30-14, in dramatic fashion. The two teams were tied at 10-10 but the Mustangs took over on 11 consecutive services by sophomore libero Megan Svendsen (Sebastopol, CA/Analy) making it 20-9. Junior captain Stephaine Saito (West Linn, OR/West Linn) also had a run of their own, with five consecutive services stretching the lead to 26-12. The Raiders were only able to score five more points while Ida took over for their second straight win.

Game five was tight with Rivier leading 8-7 at the switch. The Raiders snapped out of their funk getting five straight points to go on and win the match. There were some costly errors on the Mustang side handing them the loss.

Mount Ida will travel to Daniel Webster College in New Hampshire this Saturday for a tri-match starting at 11:00 a.m.