The Mount Ida College women's volleyball team hosted non-conference Daniel Webster College Tuesday night in Newton, Massachusetts winning 3-1 in a hard fought match on both sides by scores of 27-25, 25-23, 25-20, and 26-24. The Mustangs improve to 11-7 overall and remain at 4-3 in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference while the Eagles fall to 5-4, staying at 2-0 in the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC).
Both teams came out swinging with two points separating the score for the entirely of game one with Mount Ida holding a small margin at 10-8 after a service error by the Eagles. For the next several points the score would tie 11 times up until the end of the set. The Mustangs held on to a 22-21 lead after a damaging kill by senior captain Cherie Parisi (South Attleboro, MA/Attleboro). After the visitors took a one point lead off a block (25-24), the hosts powered up scoring the next three points capturing the 27-25 game one win leading the match 1-0.
The Mustangs pulled ahead by six early on maintaining the advantage for most of game two. The Eagles started to heat up and erased the six point lead knotting the score at 19-19 capped off a freshman Chelsey Crawford (Westfield, MA/Westfield) kill. One point separated the teams up until the final two scores of the set off two consecutive errors by the visitors giving the Mustangs the 25-23 game two win and the 2-0 match advantage.
Mount Ida sophomore Rachelle Gilbert (Corunna, IN/Dekalb) carried the Mustangs with five huge kills during game three. The Mustangs held a strong 11-6 lead over the visiting Eagles capped off by a Gilbert kill. Immediately following, the visitors went off on a 4-0 run cutting the host lead to one. Mount Ida powered up regaining the advantage up 15-11 after two kills freshman Devyn Frank (Mystic, CT/Fitch). Two Parisi kills, a Gilbert kill, and a double block by Parisi and senior Lauren Biondo (Coventry, RI/Coventry) sealed the 25-20 game three win up 2-1 in the match.
Game four was another very close set with three points separating the teams featuring 10 ties throughout. The lead changed a couple of times early on with Mount Ida going up two (8-6) after two kills by Gilbert and junior Chelsea Darnell (Dublin, OH/Dublin Scioto). After a small spurt by the Eagles to pull within one (17-16), the Mustangs jumped back ahead (20-17) on a service error by the visitors. Daniel Webster took a one point lead twice (23-22, 24-23) looking as if the match was headed into the fifth and final game. Mount Ida had other plans, scoring three consecutive points winning 26-24. The last two Mustang points were huge, one coming off a solo block by Parisi, and the last on a Darnell kill winning the match 3-1.
Darnell and freshman Christine Gallart (Germantown, MD/St. John's) combined for 15 kills throughout the match while Parisi was big under the net with four solo blocks. Gilbert also was outstanding for the Mustangs with eight kills while junior Kira Feeter (Keene, NH/Keene) and sophomore Cody Fusco (San Francisco, CA/San Francisco Waldorf) combined for 44 assists, 27 from Feeter and 17 from Fusco.
The Mustangs will host non-conference Eastern Nazerene College this coming Saturday starting at 10:00 a.m.