Coast Guard Ties For First With Win Over Babson

The following information was provided by Jason Southard, sports information director at the Coast Guard Academy:

Juniors Catherine Walker and Karen Matic each had nine kills leading Coast Guard to a 3-0 win over Babson in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) match.

In other NEWMAC action, Wellesley upset #18 Springfield 3-1 handing the Pride their first loss of the season to create a three-way tie for first place in the conference as Coast Guard, Wellesley and Springfield are all now 5-1 conference play.

Wellesley now controls its own destiny with three conference games left including a home match vs. the Bears on Oct. 25th. Coast Guard could win out, but would still lose the tiebreaker to Springfield.

Coast Guard won by game scores of 25-12, 25-19, 25-18 to improve to 16-5 overall and 5-1 in conference play.

Walker led the Bears with 12 digs while sophomore Sam Marmolejo added 11 digs and junior Keriann Mason finished with ten digs.

Matic led the way with 24 assists while freshman Elise Sako had 11 assists in the win.

Coast Guard’s attack was outstanding in the win, as the visitors hit .312 as a team. Matic’s nine errorless kills came on just 13 attempts for a .692 mark, while freshman Kelsey Hickle hit .353 with seven kills and only one miscue on 17 attacks. Sophomore Kelsey DePorto also recorded seven kills and Mason tossed in five more for the Bears.

Babson’s tough evening was highlighted by first-year Kseniya Stepanova, who hit a team-high 294 with six kills and one error in 17 attempts, and senior captain Meg Flaherty, who led all players with 10 kills. Sophomore Karla Flores and junior captain Kathleen Lynch chipped in with 11 and 10 digs, respectively, while Lynch also dished out 21 assists.