NEWTON, Mass. – First year setter Kenna McCarthy (Shelter Island, N.Y.) set for 34 assists and rookie outside hitter Morgan Weeg (Goodyear, Ariz.) swung for 14 kills to lead the Simmons College women's volleyball team to a 3-0 victory (25-15, 25-22, 25-17) over host Lasell College in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference contest tonight at the Athletic Center in Newton, Mass. The Sharks improve to 5-9 overall and 2-2 in league play, while the Lasers fall to 5-12 and 1-2.
Simmons registered a .219 hitting percentage for the match, including .250 and .263 in the second and third sets, respectively.
Weeg added 16 digs to record her 10th double-double of the season for the Sharks, while hitting .343 to go with three aces and three block assists for 18.5 points on the night. McCarthy picked up a dig and also assisted on a block. Senior middle blocker Abby Hart (Westfield, Mass.) and junior rightside hitter Amber Peterson (Las Vegas, Nev.) swung into nine kills apiece with Hart owning a .368 hitting mark and Peterson swinging at a .300 clip. Senior libero Alex Itasaka (Bradford, Mass.) averaged nearly eight digs a set with 23 to reach double digits in digs for the 13th time this season and fired a pair of aces.
The Lasers were paced by sophomore Olivia Addington (Orange, Calif.) who contributed six points on five kills and a single service ace. Defensively, junior libero Caitlyn Garcia (Moreno Valley, Calif.) registered 17 digs, while junior setter Lauren Piper (Scarborough, Maine) served up 10 assists.
Simmons jumped out to an early lead in the first set, as Hart swung into a kill to give the Sharks a 7-3 advantage. The Lasers used junior Michele Canestro (Castleton, Vt.) on the serve to pull within a pair at 12-10, but the Sharks sparked a 5-0 run and never looked back to take the first set 25-15.
Lasell showed some life in the second set as both teams battled back and forth to an early 3-3 deadlock. Simmons continued its offensive pace and ran with a 10-5 stretch for a 14-8 lead. Lasell junior Meredith Eagan (North Andover, Mass.) assumed the service line and found the floor for three consecutive services aces to pull within a single point at 14-13. A kill from first year Amanda DiLeonardo (West Haven, Conn.) kept Lasell in the game for the closing plays, 23-22, but the Sharks remained composed and capitalized on a Lasell error before Hart sealed the set, 25-22.
In a 14-team kill performance, Simmons jumped out to an early lead in the third set and remained at the forefront for the remainder of the match. Weeg put away half of the team kills for a tremendous .467 swinging percentage to lead the visitors to the 25-17 set win, and the 3-0 conference match victory.
The Sharks return to the court when it hosts Saint Joseph's College (Maine) at Moore Gymnasium for a league contest on Monday, October 10 at 1:00 p.m.
