DANBURY, Conn. - Senior
Julia Stoliker (Red Hook, N.Y.), WestConn's leading scorer this season, recorded nine kills and six digs on Saturday, but UMass Dartmouth hit .432 as a team and swept the Wolves, 25-12, 25-17, 25-14, in a women's volleyball contest at Stephen Feldman Arena. The Corsairs stayed unbeaten in Little East play.
Stoliker's kills helped the hosts jump out early in each of the first two sets. In the first, Sophomore Sophia Siruchek (Campbell Hall, N.Y.) served three straight aces and Stoliker followed with a kill for a 7-1 lead. The Wolves still led 11-9 before UMass Dartmouth's Skye Peters took the serve and the Corsairs scored five straight points, including a pair of aces. UMass Dartmouth finished the set with a long serving run from Allison Pate, whose last two aces put the set out of reach.
The second set followed the same pattern. Stoliker and Siruchek helped WestConn build a 5-2 lead, but Ella Soutter went on a seven-point run, including two aces, that put UMass Dartmouth up 9-5. The Wolves never got closer than five points after that.
In the third set, a service run from WestConn senior Ali Rondeau (Carmel, N.Y.) brought some life. She followed a kill by graduate student Taylor Thompson (West Point, N.Y.) with two aces to trim a 21-9 deficit to 21-12. But the Corsairs answered and finished the set 25-14.
Siruchek finished with seven kills and four aces. Freshman Kayla Proscia (Holbrook, N.Y.) added a trio of kills. Junior Arianna LaPointe (Boynton Beach, Fla.) dished out 11 assists and rookie Kyra Courtemanche (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) handed out seven. Freshman Sadie Casella (Marlboro, N.Y.) led the back row with nine digs, and Rondeau chipped in with five digs to go along with her pair of aces.
WestConn hit .055 with 22 kills and 17 errors on 91 attempts. UMass Dartmouth hit .432 with only 5 errors on 88 attempts, led by Olivia Seutter's 14 kills on a .591 hitting percentage and Norah Schweitzer's 10 kills. Peters notched 34 assists, Pate recorded 14 digs, and Maddie Carter added four blocks.
The loss dropped WestConn to 3-14 overall and 1-3 in the LEC play, while UMass Dartmouth improved to 10-6 and 3-0. The Wolves return to action when they host the University of Saint Joseph in a non-league matchup on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
