The Mount Ida College women's volleyball team snapped an eight game winning streak losing 3-1 to visiting Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) foe Emerson College Tuesday evening in Newton, Massachusetts. The Mustangs fall to an overall record of 16-6 dropping to 5-3 in GNAC play while the Lions improve to 18-8 in 2010 going 7-1 in the conference.
The Mustangs started strong building an immediate 3-0 advantage after a kill by sophomore middle Christine Gallart (Germantown, MD/St. John's College HS) followed by two consecutive service aces by senior captain Kira Feeter (Keene, NH/Keene). The Mustang lead was short lived watching the visitors pile on a bunch of points taking an 8-5 lead after a service ace by Lion junior Jessica Drumright (San Francisco, CA/Lowell). The Mustangs pulled within two (10-8) attempting to keep pace with their opponents, but the Lions kept the pressure on going ahead by as many as seven (17-10) after a couple errors by Mount Ida. The Mustangs chipped away but were unable to keep up offensively with the visitors falling 25-18 after a blocking error on the final point by the hosts handing Mount Ida a game one loss down 1-0 in the match.
Although Mount Ida trailed early behind 3-1, the Mustangs came back to tie the score at 5-5 after a Lions error. The visitors held a marginal lead up 12-8 capped off after a kill by Lion junior Maddie Breeland (Fairfax, VA/W.T. Woodson). Solid overall play in front of the net by Gallart, who recorded a slew of solo blocks through the stretch, gave the Mustangs a commanding momentum driven lead up 17-14 capped by another Gallart block. After a handful of Emerson errors, followed by two big kills by sophomore Jennifer Ferreira (Shirley, MA/Ayer), the Mustangs would capture the 25-15 game two win tying the match at 1-1.
Emerson opened game three hot taking a commanding 10-5 lead after a Mount Ida mistake. The Mustangs chipped away but had problems keeping up with the visitors due to a number of unforced errors watching the Lion lead inflate to 17-8. Mount Ida never backed down cutting their advantage down to five down 20-15 after a sophomore Devyn Frank (Mystic, CT/Fitch) kill followed by two kills from Ferreira. The visitors ultimately went on a 5-3 run finished off by a sophomore Kelsey Scanlon (Sonoma, CA/Justin-Siena) kill, that was crushed, capturing game three 25-18 taking a 2-1 match lead.
Emerson again led in the early stages of game four up 9-7 after a Mustang error. Mount Ida never backed down and eventually took the lead up 17-16 after a slew of Emerson errors. The Mustangs maintained a small margin up 21-18 commanding the net with most of the success coming from Gallart who was a blocking machine. The Mustangs eventually started to stumble dropping the next couple of points ultimately giving up the lead at 21-21 after a service aces by junior Katie Bailey (Calabasas, CA/Louisville). The teams exchanged points for the next couple of set knotting a few of ties towards the end of game four. The Lions eventually captured the game four win taking the match 3-1.
The Mustangs were led by Gallart with 10 kills and two solo blocks while Ferreira added 11 kills. Feeter dished out 17 assists while Darnell added 18 digs for the hosts.
The Mustangs will host non-conference Salem State College this coming Thursday starting at 6:00 p.m.