Coast Guard Academy Sports Roundup

The Coast Guard Academy defeated Wellesley College in a volleyball match on Tuesday but lost a women's soccer game to St. Joseph College. The following information was provided by Jason Southard, sports information director at the academy:

Volleyball: Coast Guard 3, Wellesley 0

Coast Guard handed Wellesley their first sweep of the season, recording a 3-0 win over the Blue on Tuesday evening in the Dorothy Towne Field House in matchup of two of the three teams that were tied for first place in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC).

With the 25-22, 25-18, 25-14 victory, the Bears improve to 22-5 (7-1 NEWMAC) while running their current win streak to eight. Wellesley falls to 20-8, with a 6-2 mark in NEWMAC play.

The team that benefits most from the Coast Guard win is Springfield, who can now wrap up the regular season championship and host the NEWMAC tournament by beating last place Wheaton on Saturday. Springfield holds the tiebreaker with the Bears because of a head-to-head win earlier this season, Coast Guard's only conference loss.

Coast Guard jumped out to an early lead in set one, going up 6-1 after back-to-back kills from Keriann Mason. The Blue battled back with Traci Hamanka at the service line, taking a 9-8 lead, but Coast Guard would even things out at 10-10. After several sideouts from each team, Coast Guard grabbed the momentum with a four-point service run from Sam Marmolejo and then sealed the set on a kill from Karen Matic.

Set two was close until Coast Guard's Elise Sako used a six point service run to give the Bears a 15-8 lead. Wellesley battled back to within four after a Caitlin Laughlin kill, but Coast Guard held on for a 25-18 victory.

The third and deciding set was all Coast Guard, as Wellesley was hampered by defensive woes. The Bears used long serving runs from Sako and Walker to build a 19-9 lead and then sealed the set and match victory with a Kelsey DePorto kill.

Coast Guard was led by DePorto who hammered 13 kills while hitting at a .522 clip. Matic and Sako split setting duties, recording totals of 19 and 12 assists, while Matic also added two blocks. Defensively for the Bears, Mason tallied 13 digs, while Marmalejo added 10.

Wellesley was led by 11 kills each from Laughlin and Sydney Carfagno. Isabel Custodio racked up 35 assists, while Kelly O'Brady and Megan Mills each added two blocks. Hamanaka led the Blue's defense, tallying nine digs.

Women's Soccer: St. Joseph 1, Coast Guard 0

Sophomore Patricia Nolan scored the only goal of the game, her team leading 14th goal of the season, in the fourth minute as St. Joseph (Conn.) beat Coast Guard 1-0 in a non-conference game, the Bears final home game of the season.

Nolan’s shot from the right side beat Coast Guard senior Mary Mills just 3:49 into the match as the Blue Jays improved to 11-5-1 overall.

Senior Holly Mirabella had seven saves to record the shutout while Mills had six saves for the Bears, who drop to 5-9-1 on the season.

Coast Guard outshot St. Joseph 15-11.

Seniors Brittany Fifer, Shannah Shelton and Mills were honored before the game on Senior Night as they played the final home games of their careers.