Thursday, October 21, 2010 (Newton, Massachusetts) – The Mount Ida College women's volleyball team captured a 3-1 non-conference victory Thursday evening over visiting Salem State College by scores of 25-19, 25-20, 17-25, and 25-17. The Mustangs improve to an overall record of 17-6 while the visiting Vikings fall to 5-19.
Game one was even with the teams exchanging points until the 6-5 mark after Salem State junior Jazmin Barrows (New Bedford, MA/New Bedford) tallied a solo block. The Vikings went up by five points (10-5) after a slew of Mustang errors. The Mustangs went on to score three consecutive points pulling within a deuce (10-8) followed by a kill from senior Chelsea Darnell (Dublin, OH/Dublin Scioto). The visitors went back ahead by a game high six points up 15-9 after a couple of host errors and a service ace by Barrows. Mount Ida got composed and crawled back into the contest chipping away cutting the lead to 15-13 after a kill by sophomore Christine Gallart (Germantown, MD/St. John's College HS). Mount Ida eventually took over the lead at 18-17 after a Salem State error. The hosts would only give up one more point en route to a 25-19 game one victory up 1-0 in the match.
The Mustangs dominated the offense in the opening of game two leading 11-4. The visitors attempted to chip away cutting the Mount Ida advantage to 16-12 after a service ace by sophomore Angelica Gonzalez (Lawrence, MA/Greater Lawrence). Mount Ida continued to apply pressure keeping a sure distance from the visitors leading 21-16 after a handful of Viking errors. The Mustangs eventually were handed the victory after a final point service error by the visitors giving Mount Ida the game two win (25-20) and the 2-0 match lead.
The visitors came out hot in game three building a 6-1 advantage after a solo block by junior Brittany Roscoe (Lowell, MA/Lowell). Mount Ida attempted to make a comeback cutting the Viking advantage to three at 10-7. The visitors followed by powering an 8-4 run to lead 18-11 after a couple of visitor errors. Although the Mustangs cut down Salem State's lead to three at 21-18 after three straight kill by Darnell, the Vikings eventually closed out the 25-22 game three victory trialing 2-1 in the match.
The Mustangs closed out the match with a 25-17 game four victory. The hosts trailed early down 5-3 after a service error by Gallart. Mount Ida kept pace knotting the score six different times through the next seven sets eventually taking a 14-12 lead after a senior Kira Feeter (Keene, NH/Keene) kill. The Mustangs struggled but found help with a slew of Salem State errors leading 19-15 after service ace from sophomore middle Devyn Frank (Mystic, CT/Fitch). Mount Ida ultimately cruised to a convincing 25-17 game four win taking the match 3-1.
Mount Ida was led by Frank with 13 kills followed by Darnell and sophomore Jennifer Ferreira (Shirley, MA/Ayer) adding 11 kills apiece. Gallart chipped in two solo blocks while junior setter Cody Fusco (San Francisco, CA/San Francisco Waldorf) dished out 22 assists.
The Mustangs will travel to Suffolk University this coming Saturday for another Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) tri-match starting at 10:00 a.m.