CASTLETON, Vt. – The Vermont State University Castleton women's volleyball team opened up its home slate with a 3-1 loss to MCLA on Wednesday night at Glenbrook Gym.
The Spartans (3-2) fell behind 2-0 in the match before claiming the third set. The team continued to battle in the fourth set, but MCLA (4-2) was able to hold off the comeback and hang on for a 25-14, 20-25, 25-20, 25-18 victory. The Trailblazers led 54-39 in kills and 12-8 in aces while Castleton had four blocks to MCLA's one on the night. Digs were nearly equal, with MCLA holding a slight edge, 67-62.
Hailey Martinovich amassed 13 kills on the night in addition to eight digs.
Jocelyn Ray came up one kill shy of a double-double, netting nine kills with 11 digs. She also had four aces and a block.
Caitlin Mahoney and
Kate Chapman had six kills apiece with
Madison Sheehan adding four. Sheehan also had a pair of blocks.
Maddie Delsignore logged 30 assists and seven digs. Tying Ray for a team-leading 11 digs were
Vanessa LeBrun and
Isabella Luna.
Anais Badio had a match-high 14 kills, followed by Chloie Garber with 13 for MCLA. Audrey Melson had 11 kills. Elizabeth Brown amassed 18 digs and Garber added 15, with Beth Harris and Julia Conturso reaching double-digit digs as well.
After dropping the first two frames, Castleton stormed back in the third set. A back-and-forth frame saw the teams trade points to a 13-13 score before Martinovich's service pushed Castleton ahead, 16-13. MCLA worked back to a level score at 20-20, but Castleton rattled off five straight points to end the set and narrow the gap to 2-1 in the match with a 25-20 set victory. Martinovich had two kills in the stretch and Ray ended the frame with an ace.
The Spartans hung tough in the fourth set as well, posting four points in a row to narrow the deficit to 18-14 late. MCLA kept the Spartans at a distance from there, closing the final set 25-18 to secure the 3-1 win.
Castleton returns to the court on Saturday with a pair of matches at Russell Sage College beginning at 10 a.m.
