Gulls fall twice on day one of Endicott Invitational

BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott women’s volleyball team played host to day one of their annual invitational, but lost both matches today to fall to 2-2 on the season.  The Gulls fell in straight sets to St. Mary’s before forcing a fifth set against Middlebury, only to lose 15-12 in the deciding frame.

Match One vs St. Mary’s (Minn.)

Box Score

The St. Mary’s duo of freshman Kara Grant (Peosta, Iowa) and senior Amy Kujak (River Falls, Wisc.) each had 10 kills and sophomore setter Lexi Assimos (Northbrook, Ill.) had 30 assists to lead the Cardinals to a 3-0 (25-16, 25-16, 25-23) win over Endicott. 

Carissa Hahn (Hutchinson, Minn.) chipped in with seven kills while leading all players with 17 digs.  Endicott’s Ashley Norley (Sudbury, Mass.) and Cardinals senior Erika Hurley (Chatfield, Minn.) each had 16 digs of their own. 

Gulls senior Elyse Barbour (Greenville, R.I.) led the home squad with eight kills with five digs.  Newcomer Hannah Dahlgren (Queensbury, N.Y.) had four kills with just one error.  Both Barbour and Dahlgren had their hands in two blocks. 

Senior Sarah Allshouse (Berthoud, Colo.) dished out 23 assists in the loss.

Match Two vs Middlebury

Box Score

Endicott won the fourth set of a match against Middlebury 25-21 to force a deciding fifth set, but the Panthers pulled off the 15-12 win in the final frame to earn a 3-2 (25-22, 25-27, 25-19, 21-25, 15-12) win over Endicott. 

Both teams saw three of their players total double digit kills and five players record at least 10 digs in the five-set thrilling match.  Middlebury’s Julia Gibbs (Houston, Texas) led all players with 17 kills and only five errors on 36 attempts.  Gibbs also had 15 digs, six service aces, and five assists in the match.  Teammates Megan Jarchow (Cos Cob, Conn.) and Sarah Studwell (Pittsford, N.Y.) added 15 and 11 kills, respectively, to Middlebury’s offensive efforts. 

Panthers libero, junior Caitlin Barrett (Medfield, Mass.), and sophomore Meg Anderson (Berlin, Mass.) both totaled 21 digs in the match apiece.  Jarchow added 19 and sophomore Courtney Shepard (Centennial, Colo.) had 10 digs to go along with her 56 set assists. 

For the Gulls, senior Elyse Barbour did not commit an error in 37 attempts while totaling 12 kills to lead the Blue and Green.  Ashley Norley and junior Falyn Torelli (Pelham, N.Y.) were also in double figures for kills with 11 and 10, respectively. 

Norley and libero Gillian Kucharski (Avon, Conn.) paced Endicott’s defensive efforts with 18 digs each.  Carly Beers (Traverse City, Mich.) and Sarah Allhouse recorded 13 digs while Torelli had 11. 

Endicott had 11 team blocks with Hannah Dahlgren and Barbour showing their presence at the net.  Dahlgren had two solo blocks and six assisted blocks while Barbour added five assisted stops above the net. 

The Blue and Green return to action on day two of the invitational against Schreiner (Texas) at 11:00 am and Williams at 3:00 pm.