Women's Volleyball (11-19, 1-6) Posts 2-2 Mark, Wins Twice at Weekend Tournament

The Wheaton College women's volleyball team went 2-2 last week, losing at regionally-ranked Wellesley College, 3-0 (7-25, 17-25, 19-25) on Tuesday in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play before winning two of three matches over the weekend at the Hall of Fame Tournament to finish third in the silver bracket and 11th among 16 teams overall. The Lyons downed Bridgewater State College, 3-0 (25-14, 25-17, 25-19) on Friday before falling to Middlebury College, 3-0 (14-25, 12-25, 9-25) and sweeping Colby College, 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-20) on Saturday. Junior Lauren Kraus (Westboro, MA/Westboro) was named to the all-tournament team. Since a 2-12 start, Wheaton has gone 9-7. With two league matches left, the Lyons are tied with Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) for eighth place as they look to secure one of eight NEWMAC Tournament spots.

Against Wellesley, which is ranked third in the region by the New England Women's Volleyball Association (NEWVA), Wheaton recovered from a low-scoring opening set to stay close with the Blue in the final two sets. Freshman Miranda Howitt (San Francisco, CA/International) had five kills, and sophomore Becca Rose (Sudbury, MA/Lincoln-Sudbury Regional) turned in nine assists and 11 digs. Freshman Emily Davisson (Carpinteria, CA/Laguna Blanca School) and sophomore Kristen Hunt (Milford, CT/Jonathan Law) notched eight and seven digs, respectively, while freshman Lauren McGrath (Wading River, NY/Shoreham-Wading River) had three blocks.

Howitt and Kraus each turned in 10 kills versus Bridgewater State, which had bested Wheaton in five sets on September 20, while Rose totaled 26 assists and seven digs. Davisson notched 12 digs, Hunt had nine, and freshman Irina Ionkina (Danielson, CT/Killingly) collected three blocks.

During Wheaton's match with Middlebury, Kraus had nine kills, while Howitt turned in six kills and six digs. Rose notched 21 assists, senior Liana Merrill (Northwood, NH/Coe-Brown Northwood Academy) had eight digs, and Davisson collected seven digs.

Kraus paced the Lyons with 10 kills against Colby, while senior Caitlin Farr (Yarmouth, MA/Dennis-Yarmouth Regional) tallied a season-high nine kills. Merrill had six kills, Rose notched 29 assists and nine digs, while Davisson and Hunt had 13 and eight digs, respectively.

Rose is fifth in program history in career assists (1,995), as well as ninth in single-season helpers (758), while Kraus is eighth in career blocks (218) and has 750 kills, sitting three shy of Wheaton's top 10. Hunt is 10 digs short of 1,000 for her career.