BENNINGTON, Vt. – The Southern Vermont College women's volleyball team finally played its first regular season home match Wednesday night at the Mountaineer Athletic Center, but the visiting Castleton University Spartans came away with a 3-0 win in the non-conference matchup.
The visitors were down large in the opening set but came back to take it by a 25-23 margin. The Spartans rolled their momentum into a 25-13 second-stanza victory, and Castleton then finished off the sweep with a 25-19 win in the third.
The Spartans grabbed a 25-22 edge in kills for the night as neither team was especially efficient on its swings. Castleton also held a slim 58-57 advantage in digs while racking up 18 service aces to SVC's four. The win avenges a 3-2 loss to the Mountaineers earlier in the season for the Spartans as the visitors were able to split the season series.
Southern Vermont (3-11) now gears up for the start of New England Collegiate Conference action, heading to Newbury College on Saturday for a 1 p.m. league contest. Castleton (5-5) also opens up North Atlantic Conference play on Saturday at Husson University with a tri-match, first playing the University of Maine-Presque Isle (12 p.m.) before taking on the hosting Eagles (4 p.m.).
Mountaineer freshman Tay Phillips (Stephentown, N.Y.) tallied a match-high nine kills on the night while adding five digs to her line. SVC senior captain Brin Goldman (St. Croix, Virgin Islands) followed with five kills as she popped up 10 digs and notched 15 assists in the effort.
Bennington College freshman Gaby Oropeza (Riverside, Calif.) led all players with 19 digs for the Mountaineers while sophomore Lizzy Bench (St. Petersburg, Fla.) followed with 13; both players also had three assists on the evening. SVC freshman Sarah Billow (South Glens Falls, N.Y.) chalked up nine digs and four kills, and junior Julia Florence (Salem, Mass.) recorded three kills against the Spartans.
Phillips' nine kills were matched by Castleton senior Cassidy Tedeschi (Pascoag, R.I.) who also had six digs, six aces, and five blocks in the win. Classmate J'Leen Diaz (West Hartford, Conn.) added another eight kills while tallying a team-best 15 digs and another four service aces, and junior Kimberly Jackson (South Windsor, Conn.) registered six kills, 11 digs and four aces of her own. Spartan senior Alex Madsen (Averill Park, N.Y.) facilitated the visitors' offense with 22 assists, and freshman libero Lauren Wilson (Hampden, Mass.) tallied another 11 digs on the defensive end.
Southern Vermont took control of the first set as Castleton had issues on the serve receive; while the Spartans were able to return many of SVC's services, it was mostly in the form of over passes which the Mountaineers used to their advantage. SVC went on a 7-1 run to go up by six, Phillips landing a pair of kills while Goldman and Florence each had another. A pair of Castleton mishaps made it a 15-7 Mountaineer advantage midway through the set, but that's when the tides started to turn.
The visitors took 10 of the next 13 points to get within one, Diaz and Jackson both landing kills in that stretch. Southern Vermont grabbed the next two for a three-point upper hand, only to see the Spartans rattle off five-straight to sandwich a Mountaineer timeout and go in front by two. A Billow kill tied it a 22-22, but Tedeschi then landed a kill and followed with an ace from behind the line to put her team up by a pair. The teams traded the next two points for Castleton to finish off the comeback and go up 1-0 in the match.
After SVC took the first two points of the second frame, the Spartans jumped in the driver's seat and took off for the victory. Castleton went on a 6-1 run behind three kills and an ace, and the visitors then notched six unanswered points to go up 14-6; Tedeschi had three aces in that latter spurt while Diaz registered a pair of kills. The Spartans would take to a 7-1 stretch towards the end of the stanza and then had another three straight to make it set-point. SVC got four in-a-row with kills from Phillips and Goldman, but Castleton finished it off on a Mountaineer miscue to go up 2-0 on the night.
The third set was tightly-contested from the start, a Billow kill and ensuing Spartan attacking error tying the score at 7-7. A pair of Tedeschi aces helped put Castleton up by four, but the Mountaineers were able to keep pace to stay within two after a visitors' service error (14-12). The Spartans seized the momentum as they went on a 7-1 run, getting kills from Tedeschi, Diaz and freshman Jess Grace (Pottstown, Pa.) to force a Mountaineer timeout. The two sides traded points after the stoppage, but SVC then ran off five straight to get within four; Goldman had two kills in that spurt while Phillips added another. Castleton used its first timeout of the night to slow things down, a decision that paid off as the Spartans won the next two points to seal their second-straight sweep.
– #LetsGoSVC –