Worcester State Volleyball Goes 0-2 in Saturday’s Road Games

NEWPORT, RI – The Worcester State University Lancers volleyball team dropped two non-conference games against Salve Regina and WPI in a tri-match hosted by Salve Regina University Saturday afternoon. With the two losses, the Lancers drop to a 6-12 record for the 2015 season.

GAME ONE: Worcester State 0, Salve Regina 3

The Lancers dropped their first game with set scores of 17-25, 24-26, and 15-25. The Lancers' attack percentage of -.016 overall did not help them in attaining the win over Salve Regina's .150 attack percentage on the afternoon.

The second set of the match was the closest the Lancers came to a victory. The Lancers were on a roll as they started out taking the lead off of Salve Regina's serving and attack errors. Worcester State kept the lead throughout the entirety of the set, until the pressure was on to score the winning point. Up by two with a 24-22 score, the Seahawks had the ball in their hands. Salve Regina's Kat Mendez and Mackenzie Donald both recorded kills to tie the score at 24. The Seahawks' Emily Lipinski added in another kill for the team to take the 25-26 lead and then pinched in with the winning point on an error by the Lancers.

Offensively for the Lancers, five individuals recorded four kills apiece – Jennifer Cabral (Swansea, Mass.), Alysia Pearce (Pepperrell, Mass.), Meghan Deighan (Lynnfield, Mass.), Emily Carens (Northboro, Mass.), and Jamika Townsend (Virginia Beach, Va.). Townsend led the Blue and Gold in assists with 11.

Defensively for the Lancers, Kaylee Leduc (Swansea, Mass.) recorded a team-high 20 digs, while Cabral logged 14.

GAME TWO: Worcester State 0, WPI 3

The Lancers' attack percentage improved in their second match of the day, but still was not able to pull through with a victory as the WPI Engineers took three set wins (25-18, 25-15, 25-19) to shutout the Lancers.

WPI had an attack percentage advantage over the Lancers .252 to .115. WPI logged 45 kills on the afternoon, while the Lancers were only able to tally up 29.

Valerie Hoyle (Bridgewater, Mass.) led the Lancers offensively with a .417 attack percentage, going 6-12 against the Engineers. Also recording six kills on the afternoon was Jennifer Cabral (Swansea, Mass) and Meghan Deighan (Lynnfield, Mass.). Deighan had the team's second best attack percentage of .333.

Freshman setter Alexandra Nolan (Melrose, Mass.) tagged on 18 assists, while Jennifer Cabral (Swansea, Mass.) led the team in digs with 23. Leduc also added in 18 digs for the Blue and Gold.

The Blue and Gold will be back in action this upcoming Tuesday (Oct. 13) as they will take on MASCAC opponent, Westfield State, for their second home match of the season. The game is scheduled to be played at WPI with a 7:30 p.m. start time.