Thursday, October 28, 2010 (Newton, Massachusetts) – On senior night, Mount Ida College women's volleyball senior captain Kira Feeter (Keene, NH/Keene) broke the record for assists in a career dishing out 19 for the game en route to a 3-1 non-conference victory over visiting Babson College by scores of 25-12, 17-25, 25-23, and 25-20. The Mustangs improve to 20-6 and remain at 7-3 in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) play.
A slew of Babson errors gave Mount Ida an immediate 7-1 advantage to start game one. The Mustangs kept cruising through points, anchored by most of their offense, pulling away to lead 15-6 after a solo block by sophomore Devyn Frank (Mystic, CT/Fitch). Mount Ida kept rolling only surrendering another six points for the game and finished off the Beavers for the 25-12 game one win leading 1-0 in the match.
Mount Ida started game two by giving away six points from the opening tip trailing 6-1 capped off on a kill by Beaver junior Meg Flaherty (Hollis, NH/Hollis Brookline). The hosts had trouble keeping pace with the visitors due to multiple errors on returns watching Flaherty burn them a bunch of times at the net trailing 15-9 after another Flaherty kill. Mount Ida attempted to climb back into game two cutting the leading to 23-17 after a handful of visitor errors. But it wasn't enough while the Beaver cruised to a 25-17 game two win tying the match at 1-1.
The beginning of game three was extremely closed with the visitors leading 7-5 after a couple of Mustang mistakes. The visitors relinquished the small advantage following a balanced offensive attack by Mount Ida after two consecutive service aces by Frank up 11-9. It remained neck and neck for the next few points featuring three ties. The Mustangs held on to the small margin up 18-14 after a kill by junior Rachelle Gilbert (Corunna, IN/Dekalb). The Beavers chipped away slowly and eventually tied the score at 20-20 following a kill by Babson sophomore Ashley Strangio (Rockville Centre, NY/South Side). The teams exchanged points for the next couple of sets until the hosts scored the final two points to capture game three (25-23) to regain the match advantage up 2-1.
The fourth and final game of the match saw Babson start strong leading 8-3 after a Mount Ida error. The Mustangs came stampeding back going on an 8-0 run to take over the advantage up 11-8 following a senior Chelsea Darnell (Dublin, OH/Dublin Scioto) kill. Mount Ida maintained their small margin leading 16-13 after a Jennifer Ferreira (Shirley, MA/Ayer) kill. It looked as if the visitors might be able to hold on for a small comeback, but sophomore middle blocker Christine Gallart (Germantown, MD/St. John's College HS) denied multiple Beaver attempts down the stretch to hold a 23-17 advantage. Mount Ida eventually closed out the game four win 25-20 good for the 3-1 non-conference match win.
The Mustangs were led by Frank and Darnell offensively with nine kills each while Gilbert recorded 24 digs. Sophomore defensive specialist Alexa Piekarski (Rye, NH/Portsmouth) added 13 digs while junior setter Cody Fusco (San Francisco, CA/San Francisco Waldorf) added 15 assists.
The Mustangs will travel to Rivier College Saturday afternoon for their final two GNAC matches of the season against the Raiders and visiting St. Joseph's College (ME). Stay tuned for more information regarding the GNAC post-season tournament.