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Neilson Leads Jeffs in 3-1 Win Over Westfield State
AMHERST, Mass. – The Amherst College volleyball team
recorded a .458 hitting percentage in its first set and hit at an
even .500 in the second en route to a 3-1 win over Westfield State
University Wednesday evening in LeFrak Gymnasium (25-14, 25-11,
19-25, 25-18).
The Lord Jeffs improve to 13-4 on the season and have won 24
consecutive matches against the Owls dating back to 1999. Westfield
State dropped to 8-16 and has lost six of its last seven
matches.
Amherst used a 9-3 run to take a 17-9 lead in the opening frame,
and the Jeffs would wrap up the first-set victory on a kill from KC
Kanoff ’12 (Pacific Palisades, Calif.). The hosts recorded 12
kills and only one error on 24 attempts, giving them an impressive
.458 hitting percentage.
Amherst then get six of its first 13 points of the second set on
service aces, with Lauren Antion ’15 (Los Angeles, Calif.)
and Devin Pence ’14 (Los Angeles, Calif.) recording three
apiece. The Jeffs used a 13-2 run to take charge, with Meghan
McCafferty ’14 (Tyngsboro, Mass.) picking up the final kill
to wrap up a set that saw the Jeffs connect on 50 percent of their
attack attempts.
The third set featured seven ties and three lead changes in the
early going, with Westfield using a 3-0 run to break an 11-11
deadlock. The Owls bumped their lead to five points (17-12) on
blocks from Alex Shaw and Kelsey Leonard and would close out the
set on a 4-0 run, as Lindsay Rescott recorded the final kill for a
25-19 result. Rescott and Julia Warner had four kills apiece in the
frame, with Rescott’s coming on only seven attempts.
The fourth set was a tug-of-war that saw Amherst lead from start to
finish. The Jeffs scored the first four points and held an 11-4
advantage before watching their lead drop to two points (13-11),
increase to seven (18-11) and deflate back down to three (19-16).
Amherst took charge from there and closed out the 25-18 win on
another service ace from Pence.
Antion led Amherst with 11 kills (.500), while Kanoff and Abigail
Hunter ’13 (Kentfield, Calif.) each had 10. Callie Neilson
’13 (Escondido, Calif.) had 39 assists and helped the Lord
Jeffs hit at .299 for the match, Pence led all players with five
aces and 12 digs, and Kristin Keeno ’13 (Honolulu, Hawaii)
added 11 digs.
Rescott finished with a match-high 14 kills (.312), with Warner
close behind at 12. Kerin DeGirolamo had 36 assists, three service
aces, seven digs and two block assists in a solid all-around
effort, with Warner adding nine digs and Leonard chipping in with
three block assists.
The Lord Jeffs will return to action this Friday when they travel
to take on Colby College at 6 p.m. The Owls will take on Wheaton
and Western Connecticut this Saturday at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.,
respectively.
