Volleyball Falls to AIC 3-0 in Home Finale
NORTH ANDOVER, MA - The Merrimack volleyball team saw its
playoff chances suffer with a 3-0 loss to American International in
the final home match Tuesday night.
Game scores were 25-18, 25-20, 25-14.
The Yellow Jackets came out strong, leading for the entire first
set behind five kills and four digs from Talia de Souza. De Souza
was the server when the visitors rattled off five straight points
to take a 24-17 lead and put the set away with 12 total kills and
four service aces.
Merrimack responded early in the second, leading 11-5 behind two
aces from Natalee Yeazle (Blaine, MN), but AIC
recovered, tying the game at 15 after a kill from de Souza and
finished the set on a 20-9 run to take the second 25-20. Ellisha
Terry totaled eight second-set kills to lead the way for the
visitors.
AIC cruised in the third, building leads of 6-1 and 20-6, before
handing Merrimack just its fourth home loss of the season with a
25-14 third-set defeat.
"AIC came in and they knew what was on the line and they played
tough," said head coach Joey Pacis. "Our serve-receive was very
poor. We got lit up for 11 service aces in a three-set match and
when we're unable to pass the ball well, we can't run the offsense,
so that put us in a really tough spot. Anything that wasn't an ace
ended up being a free ball, and AIC just ran their offense and took
charge."
Molly Cindric (Westlake Village, CA) led
Merrimack with 11 kills, but committed three attack and receive
errors. Shaunda Forcier (Gonic, NH) tallied seven
kills but posted seven attack errors. Yeazle posted eight digs,
four kills and two aces, while Alyssa Pickert (Tinley Park,
IL) had a team-best eight digs. Elyse Lorenz
(Frankfurt, IL) and Brianna Trabucco (Canton,
MA) combined for 24 assists.
Terry finished with a double-double on 17 kills and 11 digs and
added five aces, with de Souza finishing with 14 kills, six digs
and three aces.
Merrimack (20-11 7-7 NE-10) goes for its 21st
victory, which would set a school record, at Assumption Thursday at
7 p.m. in the regular season finale.
"We have one more match left and hopefully we can finish strong
as we look forward to next season."
