CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – No. 2 seed and nationally ranked No. 12 MIT defeated No. 7 seed WPI, 25-23, 25-18, 25-19, in the quarterfinals of the NEWMAC Women's Volleyball Championship on Tuesday night in Rockwell Cage.
Miller Grimes produced nine kills on 12 errorless attempts to hit .750 for MIT while Olivia Hutchinson led WPI with 12 kills.
THE BASICS:
- Score: No. 12 MIT 3, WPI 0 (25-23, 25-18, 25-19)
- Records: No. 12 MIT (23-4 Overall); WPI (12-15 Overall)
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- Set 1: After seeing an early 4-1 lead disappear, WPI rallied to take a 19-18 advantage late in the first set. MIT tied the match on a kill by Grimes before back-to-back points from the hosts forced a WPI timeout with MIT leading, 22-20. WPI tied the match with consecutive points following the break before Sabine Smith put down a kill to give MIT a 23-22 edge. However, a WPI kill by Hutchinson tied the score again, 23-23. MIT pushed for the final two points to win the set, taking the 1-0 edge in the match following a kill from Eileen Sadati and a WPI error that gave MIT a 25-23 set win.
- Set 2: WPI had another early lead in the second set before MIT broke away to move up 2-0 in the match. With the score tied at 8-8, the Cambridge Engineers ran off four straight points to go ahead 12-8. MIT never trailed for the remainder of the set, taking an 18-10 lead on a kill by Sadati before later moving ahead 20-14 on a kill from Jennifer Cen. Kills from Grimes and Julia Tolstova helped close out the 25-18 set victory for MIT.
- Set 3: MIT hit .433 in the third set to finish off the sweep with a 25-19 victory. Tied at 4-4 early, the hosts scored six of the next seven points in the match to take a 10-5 lead following a kill by Cen. The MIT advantage later extended to 15-7, following a WPI error. Trailing by eight, WPI countered, cutting the deficit in half, at 18-14, following a kill from Zeala VanDamme. Three straight MIT points quickly quelled the rally, as MIT took a 21-14 lead and forced a WPI timeout. WPI was able to trim its deficit back to four, at 23-19, but Tolstova and Grimes registered the final two kills in the match to give MIT the win.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
- Sadati led all players with 13 kills as Tolstova finished with 11 kills and 11 digs.
- Cen posted eight kills, a .429 hitting effort, and three blocks while Sophia Song collected a match-high 16 digs.
- Kayleigh May ended the night with 43 assists and two aces.
- VanDamme registered 11 kills, a .579 hitting percentage, and five blocks.
- Lauren Boycourt dished out 15 assists while Amelia Lynch totaled 12 assists and four blocks.
- Bridget Spees amassed 15 digs and two aces as Jennah DiMartino contributed eight digs.
- This was the first postseason meeting between both programs since 2011. With the victory, MIT is now 7-0 all-time against WPI in the conference tournament.
UP NEXT:
- MIT will face No. 6 U.S Coast Guard Academy in the semifinals of the NEWMAC Championship which will be held at top-seeded Babson College on Saturday, November 14 at 3:30 PM.
- This will be the sixth postseason meeting between both teams and the second year in a row the Engineers and Bears will face off in the semifinals. MIT has won all five previous matches in the conference tournament.
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