MANCHESTER, N.H. – The regionally-ranked Saint Anselm College volleyball team suffered a 3-0 loss to crosstown rival Southern New Hampshire University in the Northeast-10 Conference Quarterfinals on Thursday.

The Hawks, who are ranked fifth in the most recent NCAA Division II East Region Rankings, drop to 20-9 and will eagerly await the NCAA Division II draw show, which airs on Sunday, Nov. 13 at 10:30 p.m., to see if their season will continue. The Penmen advance to the NE10 Semifinals and improve to 16-6 on its 2022 campaign.

Southern New Hampshire used set scores of 25-22, 25-18, and 25-19 on its way to the straight sets victory.

Senior Lauren Casey (Jefferson City, Mo.) and junior Kaitlin Brown (Glendale, Ariz.) led the Hawks offense with 11 kills apiece. Senior Michelle Henwood (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico) threw up a match-high 32 assists and now sits on 821 for the season. Casey added a team-high 12 digs to register her sixth double-double of the season.

Senior Caroline Belmontez (San Diego, Calif.) collected six digs in the match and becomes just the fifth student-athlete in program history to eclipse the 1,300 career digs mark.

A tightly contested opening set saw just three points as the largest lead for either side. After a service error by the Penmen made the first stanza a 22-21 score, Southern New Hampshire reestablished a three-point edge after back-to-back kills, pushing the score to 24-21. The Hawks would get the scoring back in their favor on a kill by Brown but a service error would close the first set with the Penmen taking a 1-0 edge in the match after the 25-22 set one win.

The Hawks opened set two with a kill by junior Audrey Wetjen (Henderson, Nev.) but Southern New Hampshire registered nine of the next 10 points to take a 9-2 lead early in the set. Saint Anselm trailed by as many as nine points in the set but managed to cut its deficit to three at 20-17 on a kill by freshman Ava Kidd (Walton, Ky.), which capped a six-point Hawks run. However, the Penmen scored on five of the final six points in the set to take a 2-0 lead in the match following the 25-18 set two.

Another back-and-forth battle to set three saw the teams draw even at 12 on a kill by Kidd. Following the kill, the Penmen would score on six of the next nine points to take an 18-15 lead but a Penmen error and service ace by freshman Skylar Ryan (Channahon, Ill.) pushed the Hawks deficit to one. Southern New Hampshire would outscore Saint Anselm by a 7-2 margin to close out third set by a 25-19 score and the match, 3-0.