NEW LONDON, N.H. The New England College volleyball team suffered a 3-0 North Atlantic Conference (NAC) loss to Colby-Sawyer College on Wednesday evening at the Hogan Sports Center. The Chargers won by scores of 25-19, 25-14 and 25-18.

Colby-Sawyer improves to 9-13 overall and 3-0 in the NAC. NEC falls to 9-12 on the season and 2-1 in the NAC.

NEC LEADERS
NEC received nine kills from KayleighMacDougall(Farmington, N.H.)on .259 hitting. She added nine digs. Junior Meaghan Six (Manchester, N.H.) chipped in a match-high 11 digs and a pair of aces. Freshman Kennedy Somavia (Red Bluff, Calif.) had 16 assists.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Chargers raced out to a 6-2 lead in the first set after a pair of NEC attack errors. Colby-Sawyer increased its advantage to five when the team benefited from another Pilgrims miscue to make the score 10-5. The home team held a comfortable lead until NEC pulled within one at 16-15 after a kill from Dreka Griffin (Calera, Ala.). Colby-Sawyer responded with a 9-4 run capped by sophomore Naarah Cox (Boston, Mass.) to finish the set 25-19.

The second set went back and forth and featured four ties and a pair of lead changes. With the score knotted at 9-9, Colby-Sawyer used a 5-1 spurt to create separation and never looked back. The Chargers closed the set with a Courtney Murray (Quincy, Mass.) kill and an ace from sophomore Olivia Goodrich (Epping, N.H.).

Colby-Sawyer carried the momentum into the third set and opened with a 10-3 run to force an NEC timeout. The Chargers held their largest lead of the match at 19-6 after a pair of aces from sophomore Morgan Flynn (Reading, Mass.). The Pilgrims fought back with multiple kills from MacDougall to cut the deficit to five at 23-18, but the Chargers would record the final two points to sweep the match.

COLBY-SAWYER LEADERS
Cox led all players with 12 kills on .320 hitting. She added an impressive four solo blocks and two block assists. Murray added nine kills and 10 digs for the Chargers, while senior Alli Lahiff (Haverhill, Mass.) hit .467 and finished with eight kills. Goodrich recorded 33 assists. Flynn and junior Nicole Olivieri (Salem, N.H.) tied for a match-high 11 digs apiece.

QUOTE FROM THE COACH
"I think tonight showed that we need to play form the first point until the very end. We can't pick and choose when we are going to play hard." - Head Coach Laura Falkowitz

WHAT'S NEXT
The Pilgrims will return to New London on Saturday to play Lyndon and Johnson as part of a quad match hosted by the Chargers.