BENNINGTON, Vt. – The Southern Vermont College women’s volleyball team swept a home tri-match defeating the SUNY Cobleskill Fighting Tigers 3-2 and New England Collegiate Conference opponent the Newbury College Nighthawks 3-2 Saturday in the MAC. The Mountaineers were led by juniors Hershey Canta (70 assists), Ashliy Veliz (46 kills), and Joanna Hogue (47 digs) to come out of the weekend 9-4 (1-0). SVC is on a five game winning streak.

Southern Vermont 3, SUNY Cobleskill 2

SVC (8-4) fell behind early as the Fighting Tigers (5-11) won the first set 25-21. The Mountaineers came out in the second set way ahead of Cobleskill with a couple nice rallies. The Tigers fought its way back but could not get ahead as the Mountaineers won 27-25. Cobleskill came out strong in the third set and won 25-13. Southern Vermont was not ready to pack it in and defeated the Tigers on the final two sets 25-21 and 15-10 to take the match 3-2. This was the first win for the Mountaineers against the Tigers since the program started in 2001.

Veliz led the Mountaineers with 21 kills (.224) and added 16 digs. Canta led with a match-high 31 assists. She also had five kills, three aces, and 10 digs. Hogue led from the service line as she tallied seven aces and defensively she had 17 digs. Junior Tasha Smith had a solid day as she tallied six kills and had three solo blocks. Rounding out the box for SVC was senior Sarah Golub who had 13 digs, seven assists, and two block assists.

Sophomore Maggie Trombly has the best hitting percentage on the day as she had 17 kills and only three errors giving her a .333 percentage. Sophomore Brooke Burke added 13 kills and tallied seven digs defensively. Senior Krista Grady led the team with 28 assists and rounding out the box for the Tigers was senior Nancy Stevens who had a match-high 21 digs.

SUNY Cobleskill 3, Newbury 0

The Fighting Tigers (6-11) cruised past non-conference foe Newbury winning 3-0 with sets of 25-21, 25-22, and 25-17. Cobleskill was led by Burke and Elizabeth Stap who had eight and six kills respectively. Grady led with 19 assists to give her 47 on the day. Shorna Brown led the team with 11 digs.

Newbury (3-8) was led by freshman Jessy Touron and sophomore Stephanie Williams who had six kills each. Setter Regina Sibilia led the team with 16 assists and she added 11 digs on the defensive side. Junior Tricia Corriveau rounded out the box with a match-high 19 digs for the Nighthawks.

Southern Vermont 3, Newbury 2

The Mountaineers (9-4, 1-0 NECC) went into the final match hoping to cruise past the Nighthawks (3-9, 0-1 NECC) but going into the fourth set found themselves down 2-1 against the visiting NECC squad. Southern Vermont regrouped and slated a 25-19 victory in the fourth set and won the final near-perfect set 15-5. Southern Vermont finished the day 9-4 overall and 1-0 in the NECC, while Newbury ended the day 3-9 overall and 0-1 in the NECC. This is the first win for SVC against Newbury since the Conference formed two years ago.

The Mountaineers were led by Veliz who hit an exceptional .412 and finished the match with 25 kills. She had 46 kills in the tri-match and had 10 aces overall. Canta tallied 39 assists against Newbury, giving her 70 on the day. She also hit .450 and had 10 kills and only one error. Hogue led the defense with a match-high 30 digs. Claircius had a nice run at the end from the service line and finished with three aces and she also had eight kills and 12 digs. Golub rounds out the box with 10 digs and three aces. The Mountaineers had a .276 team percentage in the match, including a .500 percentage in the fifth set and a .615 (8/0/13) in the final set.

Newbury was led by senior Kerri McAuley who had seven kills and eight digs. Sibilia led once again with 14 assists to give her 30 on the day. Amy Chen, Sibilia, and Sarah Young led the defense for the Nighthawks as they finished with 21, 16, and 14 digs respectively.

Southern Vermont is back in action on Saturday, October 9th, when it travels to NECC foe the Mitchell College Mariners for a NECC tri-match. The Mountaineers will face the Daniel Webster College Eagles at 1:00 p.m. and the Mariners at 3:00 p.m.