MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm College volleyball team won a first-set thriller by a score of 36-34 and eventually closed out a straight-set victory over Mercy (N.Y.) College on Tuesday.
Saint Anselm moves to 7-2 on the season following the non-league victory. Mercy, who dropped a five-set match at Southern New Hampshire just an hour before taking the court in Stoutenburgh Gymnasium, falls to 2-6 overall.
The Hawks won the opening set by a 36-34 score, establishing a new team record for the longest set played since the NCAA switched to rally scoring in 2008. Saint Anselm closed the match out with set wins of 25-14 and 25-16.
Sophomore Audrey Wetjen (Henderson, Nev.) led Saint Anselm with nine kills on 21 swings. Junior Lauren Casey (Jefferson City, Mo.), who was named NE10 Player of the Week earlier in the day, contributed 10 digs and eight kills on the match. Junior Michelle Henwood (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico) threw up 37 assists on the day while classmate Caroline Belmontez (San Diego, Calif.) scooped up 17 digs.
Saint Anselm trailed by as many as six points in the first set, falling behind by an 8-2 margin before the hosts were forced to call a time out. Down by an 18-13 score later in the match, Saint Anselm regrouped yet again with a time out that ultimately sparked a Hawks rally.
Down by a 24-20 score at set point, Saint Anselm pulled off a comeback for the ages. Two Wetjen kills and a service ace by sophomore Kaitlin Brown (Glendale, Ariz.) brought Saint Anselm back to within one point, 24-23, and back-to-back attack errors by Mercy pushed the Hawks into the lead, 25-24.
The teams traded kills, attack errors and service aces all the way to a 34-34 deadlock. A kill by Casey and the set's final kill by Belmontez, her lone kill of the entire match, lifted Saint Anselm to a 1-0 lead in the match. Henwood finished with 17 helpers in the first set alone as the teams played to 19 tied scores and nine total lead changes.
The score was tied at eight in the second set before Saint Anselm rattled off a string of eight consecutive points to create a 16-8 advantage. The Hawks would ease to victory using a match-high hitting percentage of .303 in the middle stanza and a team-best seven digs by Belmontez.
Ahead by a one-point margin, 8-7, Saint Anselm forged ahead in set three with the help of strong all-around play. A kill by Henwood preceded an attacking error and a bad set by the Mavericks at that juncture, putting the Hawks in the driver's seat from there on out. Mercy hit in the negatives as a team in the third and final set while Henwood threw down four kills on five attacks, leading her team.
Mercy was led by a nine-kill performance from Nilka Rivera Maldonado. Yarianne Gonzalez logged 25 assists and five student-athletes had double-digit dig totals for the Mavericks.
Saint Anselm hits the road to take on Assumption this Friday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m.
