BOSTON, Mass. –
Maddie Delsignore set a new Vermont State University Castleton women's volleyball program record for assists on Saturday afternoon, surpassing the previous record of 942 after a 32-assist outing put her at 960 for her career.
Alex Madsen has been the record holder since 2016, setting the mark to beat. Delsignore's 943rd assist came in the second set, surpassing all setters who came before her. With three matches to play, Delsignore sets her sights on becoming the first player in program history to reach the 1,000 assist threshold for a career.
The Spartans (6-14, 0-7 LEC) fell to UMass Boston (14-9, 4-3 LEC) by a 3-1 margin, falling 25-23 in the opening set before winning 26-24 in the second frame. UMB took the third set handily, 25-13, but the Spartans battled back in the fourth set and almost pushed it to a fifth, but fell 27-25 to round out the evening. UMass Boston had a 58-39 edge in kills and a 10-9 edge in aces.
Vanessa LeBrun had a solid outing with 12 kills and 20 digs for a double-double.
Caitlin Mahoney had four aces and 15 digs on the day and
Sophia Call added 15 digs.
Jocelyn Ray and
Hailey Martinovich added seven and six kills each, respectively. Ray also had three aces and a solo block.
Livia Trindade racked up 18 kills for the Beacons with Taryn Broughal adding 15. Ruby Ackerman and Amelia Devlin split setting duties with 16 and 12 assists, respectively, and Ally Dean had 24 digs.
After the Spartans battled to a 5-4 lead in the first set, UMass Boston used a six-point run to jump ahead 10-5. Castleton battled back later in the frame to a 15-14 score thanks to a 6-1 run of its own. VTSU Castleton leveled the score at 18-18 after a kill from Martinovich later in the set, but a 4-1 run by the Beacons put their lead back to three, 22-19. The two sides then collected points in bunches of two until the Spartans narrowed the UMass Boston lead to 24-23, but the Beacons capped the set there with a kill by Paige Coulson.
The early portion of the second set belonged to UMass Boston, as the hosts raced out to a 6-2 lead. Castleton worked it back to a one-point deficit after a pair of kills and an ace, but did not lead in the set until a four-point run that featured three kills from LeBrun and an ace by Call. The Beacons took the lead right back, but the two sides traded blows for a long period of time. UMass Boston again led 24-23 late in the frame, but this time Castleton battled back. An error by the Beacons prolonged the set, making it 24-24, and
Madison Sheehan notched a kill before Mahoney aced the Beacons to end the frame on top 26-24 and level the match at 1-1.
After falling behind 2-1 in the match after a Beacon-controlled third stanza, Castleton continued to fight in the fourth set. Despite falling behind 10-0 in the frame, Castleton rattled off six unanswered points in the middle of the frame to pull within one, 21-20. After trading points briefly, a three-point run gave the Spartans a 24-23 lead. The Beacons notched back-to-back points to make it 25-24 in their favor, but the score got leveled at 25-25 after a UMass Boston error. The Beacons scored the final two points of the night, however, taking the final set 27-25 and the match 3-1.
Castleton will honor its two seniors—Delsignore and Mahoney—on Wednesday night when the Spartans host Russell Sage College at 7 p.m. in Glenbrook Gym.
