BOSTON, Mass. – Senior middle blocker Abby Hart (Westfield, Mass.) hit .478 and swung for a match-high 11 kills to lead the Simmons College women's volleyball team to a 3-0 (25-11, 25-18, 25-12) victory over visiting Norwich University this afternoon in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference match at Moore Gymnasium in Boston, Mass. The Sharks have not dropped a set in their three-match win streak and improve to 7-9 overall and 4-2 in GNAC play, while the Cadets fall to 5-11 and 1-5.
Simmons hit .261 for the match, while holding Norwich to a .026 mark.
Hart did not commit an attack error for the day and added a dig, while junior rightside hitter Amber Peterson (Las Vegas, Nev.) put down eight kills on a .333 hitting mark in addition to four digs. First year middle blocker Allie Erk Thompson (Canton, Mass.) hit a torrid .625 for the contest, while swinging for six kills and registering a solo block. Senior defensive specialist Kat Guillotte (New Bedford, Mass.) picked up 13 digs and put away a pair of kills, while first year setter Kenna McCarthy (Shelter Island, N.Y.) dished out 24 assists to go with a match-high four aces, four digs and three kills.
First year outside hitter Monika Schneider (Brookline, N.H.) led the Cadets' offense with five kills and a .364 hitting percentage to go with six digs, while first year libero Brianna Dawson (Katonah, N.Y.) got down for 13 digs and fired an ace. Junior Katie Crane (Avon, N.Y.) and sophomore Emily Oliver (Sagamore Hills, Ohio) each set for seven assists.
The Sharks dropped just 11 points in the opening set, while owning a .348 hitting mark. Simmons jumped out to a 10-5 lead in the set. The home team maintained a 14-9 margin, before ripping off six straight points, behind three aces from senior libero Alex Itasaka (Bradford, Mass.), to take a 20-9 cushion. Norwich countered with the next two points, before the Sharks closed out the match with five unanswered points, including a kill from Erk Thompson to seal the frame.
The Cadets got out to a 9-6 lead in the second set, before an 11-2 stretch gave Simmons a 17-11 lead, behind two kills from Erk Thompson and a pair of aces from McCarthy. A kill from Erk Thompson later gave the Sharks their largest lead of the set at, 23-15, before Peterson scored the final point of the frame on a kill for the home team.
Norwich took advantage of two Simmons service errors and a pair of attack errors to take a 6-4 lead early in the third set. The Sharks regrouped and were flawless during senior Andalyn Duke's (Litchfield Park, Ariz.) turn at the service line, reeling off 16 straight points to take a 20-6 advantage. Hart (five) and Peterson (three) combined for eight kills during the stretch. The Cadets scored six of the final 11 points, but a kill by first year outside hitter Morgan Weeg (Goodyear, Ariz.) gave Simmons the set victory at 25-12 to secure the match win.
The Sharks return to the court on Tuesday, October 18 when they cross the street to take on GNAC rival Emmanuel College for a 7:00 p.m. tilt, while Norwich heads to Nashua, N.H. on the same night to take on Rivier University in a 7:00 p.m. match of its own.