Thursday, October 4, 2012 (Newton, Massachusetts) - Behind a 23 kills performance from senior hitter Jennifer Ferreira (Shirley, MA/Ayer), the Mount Ida College women's volleyball team battled hard in a tough fought match with visiting Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) foe Johnson & Wales University winning 3-2 by scores of 25-23, 18-25, 13-25, 25-20 and 15-12 Thursday evening in Newton, Massachusetts.
Mount Ida captured the final two games of the match after snatching a game one win to start the match fending off the Wildcats for the win with solid play on both sides of the net.
The Mustangs improve to an overall record of 6-10 with a conference slate of 4-2 pulling into fourth place in the league standings. The visitors fall to a 2012 slate of 7-14, 2-2 in GNAC action.
Ferreira was impressive with 23 kills on 63 attempts adding two service aces and nine digs for the match. Freshman middle hitter Trudy Goetchius (North Andover, MA/Lawrence Vocational Tech.) was strong on both ends for the Mustangs with 13 kills on 52 attempts including a team-high 17 digs. Senior Julie Smith (Richmond, RI/Chariho) and sophomore Nicole Peixoto (New Bedford, MA/New Bedford) split time running the offense in the setter position with Piexoto adding 26 dishes while Smith added 17 assists. Junior Abbey Fedigan (New Fairfield, CT/New Fairfield) added a solo block and a block assist as well as 12 digs respectively.
For the visitors, sophomore middle hitter Caroline Kirk (Purcellville, VA/Loudon Valley) notched a team-high 10 kills on 19 attempts with three errors. Kirk also added three solo blocks and four block assists dominating the defensive side of the net. Junior libero Giselle Cram-Ortiz (Vega Alta, Puerto Rico/Marista Manati) was all over the back row adding a game-high 26 digs for the Wildcats. JWU junior Natasha Finkbeiner (Belgrade, MT/Belgrade) and sophomore Alyssa Drapeau (Biddeford, ME/Biddeford) handed out 30 combined assists as well.
The Mustangs will travel to non-league Salem State University this coming Saturday with match time slated for 1:00 p.m. while the visiting will host GNAC member Albertus Magnus College the same day in Providence, Rhode Island starting at noon.