Volleyball Drops Home Contest To Franklin Pierce, 3-1
NORTH ANDOVER, MA – The Merrimack women's volleyball team was denied a victory tonight at Bert Hammel Court by the Franklin Pierce Ravens by the score of 3-1. With the loss, Merrimack falls to 7-12 overall and 0-6 in the Northeast-10.
"We fell short tonight when we needed big points," said head coach TJ Hajjar. "The service and receiving errors killed us tonight."
The Merrimack offense was led by sophomore Corrine Gosselin (Lawrence, Mass.) who recorded a career-high 14 kills and two blocks in the loss. Senior Jenna Reilly (Northport, NY) continued her solid play as she recorded a team-high 14 kills while Stephanie Sheehan (Smithtown, NY) finished with eight kills and 12 digs. Defensively Merrimack was led by a pair of underclassmen, Madison Burke (San Jose, Calif.) and Allison Cote (Chelmsford, Mass.), who recorded 26 and 20 digs respectively. Brianna Trabucco (Canton, Mass.) finished with a match-high 43 assists and four digs in the defeat.
Game scores against Southern Franklin Pierce: 21-25, 25-17, 20-25, 20-25
Merrimack fell behind early in the first set but two 4-0 runs in the middle of the set helped bring the Warriors back in the set. With the score 19-18 in favor of the Ravens, Merrimack was unable to put Franklin Pierce away as they went on a 6-3 run to win the first set 25-21.
The Warriors dominated the second set as they went on a 6-0 run early on that led to the win 25-17. The Ravens made the score respectful late in the set as they went on a 4-0 run but six kills from Reilly led the Warriors to victory. Trabucco also recorded 14 assists in the set victory.
With the score tied at 19 late in the third set, Merrimack could not produce the big point as the Ravens went on a 6-1 run to finish off the Warriors.
In the fourth and final set, Merrimack tied the score at 14 as Reilly put down a big kill. But once again Merrimack allowed their counterpart to go on a run to close out the set as they won the set 25-20, closing on an 11-6 run.
The Ravens were led by Natasha Ray who finished with a double-double with 14 kills and 14 digs in the win. Stephanie Svorinic finished with a team-high 36 assists, four digs and three kills while Lina Kleinschmidt finished with 13 kills and five blocks. Lauren Miller finished the game with a match-high 27 digs in the win.
Merrimack (7-12, 0-6 NE-10) will return home on Friday for a conference match with Pace at 7 p.m.
