Endicott escape day one of invitational with two wins

Beverly, Mass. – On day one of the Endicott Women’s Volleyball Invitational, held at both MacDonald Gymnasium and the Field House at Endicott College, the Gulls earned two victories over Emmanuel College and Middlebury College. The Blue and Green are now 5-1 and move on to day two of the tournament at the top of Pool A.

Endicott defeated Emmanuel 3-0 (25-14, 25-11, 25-16) in their first match of the day behind an all-around performance by junior \#Sarah Allshouse\# (Berthoud, Colo.). Allshouse dished out 33 assists, led the Gulls defensively with 14 digs, and added four kills without an error. 

Allshouse spread the offense out to several Endicott attackers as \#Brittney Phillips\# (Sudbury, Mass.) and \#Elyse Barbour\# (Greenville, R.I.) shared a team-high nine kills apiece and both \#Amy Grigg\# (Vernon, Conn.) and \#Falyn Torelli\# (Pelham, N.Y.) added eight kills, respectively. 

For the Saints, junior outside hitter Jenna Ross (Centerburg, Ohio) led the offensive charge with nine kills while adding five digs and a service ace. Also contributing on the attack was sophomore Rachel Swiezynski (Exeter, N.H.) who had four kills on 15 attacks without recording an error. Libero Yun-Ting Lee (Cambridge, Mass.) was a presence defensively with 10 digs.

Gulls sophomore libero \#Ashley Norley\# (Sudbury, Mass.) continued to be a presence in the back row with another double-digit dig match, tallying 12 for Endicott.

As a team, Endicott compiled an impressive .402 hit percentage on the match.

The Gulls and the Panthers battled back-and-forth to a fifth and deciding set before Endicott rallied for a 3-2 (26-24, 23-25, 25-22, 19-25, 15-8) triumph in match two of the day.

Middlebury’s Jane Handel (Evanston, Ill.) led all attackers with 16 kills, but the Gulls once again showed a balance attack with Torelli and Phillips having a team-high 11 kills each. Barbour and freshman \#Callie Dolan\# (Westford, Mass.) added nine kills apiece in the winning effort. Dolan did much of her damage in the fifth set, getting three crucial kills in the final frame. 

Both teams showed strong defense as the Panthers had five players with double-digit digs and the Gulls had three. Norley led all players with 24 digs, but Middlebury got tremendous defensive efforts from Caitlin Barrett (Medfield, Mass.), Handel, Julia Gibbs (Houston, Texas), Caroline Cordle (Atlanta, Ga.), and Lauren Barrett (Medfield, Mass.) who had 20, 19, 16, 13, and 11 digs, respectively. Endicott’s Phillips and \#Allison Murphy\# (Gilford, N.H.) also hit the double-digit dig mark with 18 and 14 each. 

Grigg and Barbour did much of their defensive damage at the net, as they combined for four solo blocks and 21 assisted blocks.

Endicott will next face off against Eastern Connecticut State University at 11 am on Saturday, September 11^th in day two of the Endicott Invitational.