QUINCY, Mass. The New England College volleyball team fell to Eastern Nazarene in straight sets (11-25, 18-25, 15-25) in the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Semifinals on Friday evening.

With the loss, the Pilgrims will see their season come to a close with a 14-18 record overall and a 7-2 record in the NECC. Eastern Nazarene will move on to the NECC Championship game with a 20-6 record overall and an 8-1 record in the NECC.

NEC LEADERS
Tihani Ehia(Kaneohe, Hawaii) lead the Pilgrims offensively and defensively with eight kills and 18 digs. Maggie Dadmun(Cape Elizabeth, Maine) and Kenzie Barron (Clearfield, Utah) tied for the team-high in assists with nine each.Meaghan Six (Manchester, N.H.) finished the contest with eight digs. Sydni Geisler (Rigby, Idaho) and Julia Ostrov (Mililani, Hawaii) led the Pilgrims in blocks with 2.0 each.

EASTERN NAZARENE LEADERS
Courtney McCarthy and Ruth Aguilar finished the contest with 15 and 14 kills each. Aguilar also led all players in the contest with 22 assists. Jessica Caldwell tied a game-high 18 digs.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Eastern Nazarene opened up the first set with two quick points. The Pilgrims would earn one back but for nearly every Pilgrim point came two Lion points. The Lions would hold a 6-14 lead before the Pilgrims went on their longest run of the set, four, to cut the lead in half. Eastern Nazarene would take a timeout to slow the momentum, which worked perfectly as they would nine straight points and 11 of the final 12 to close out the set, 11-25.

Set two saw the teams trade points all the way to 8-8. From there, ENC earned six of the next seven to open up a five-point lead. The lead would hover around that four to five-point margin until a four-point run opened the gap to seven. That lead would be too large to overcome and the Lions would close out the set and put themselves on match point.

With their backs against the wall, the Pilgrims would earn the first point of the third set. However, the Lions would earn three straight points to regain the momentum. The score would then be tied at three, four, five, and six before the Lions opened a three-point lead at 6-9. The Pilgrims would close the gap to one at 11-12 but another three-point run would open the lead back to four. The lead would stay the same until the Lions closed out the set and match with a six-point run.