Seahawks end regular season on three-match streak

BIDDEFORD, Maine -- Senior Jennifer Duggan (Merrimack, N.H.) racked up 20 kills to pace Salve Regina University in a 3-1 Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) victory over the University of New England to close out the regular season on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 1) at the Harold Alfond Forum. Set scores were 24-26, 25-12, 25-18, and 25-16.

With the win, the Seahawks (18-9) secured the No. 3 seed for the upcoming CCC tournament by finishing at 6-2 in league play. The Nor'easters (11-15) dropped to 4-4 in the CCC with the setback. Both sides will be in action on Tuesday in the first round of playoffs.

Duggan hit .341 for the match and added nine digs to her stat line. Salve senior Katelyn Beauregard (Dartmouth, Mass.) connected on .458 of her attacks to end with 12 kills -- 10 of which came over the final two sets. Classmate Tara Kuck (Huntington, N.Y.) contributed a double-double of 10 kills and 10 digs, while dropping in seven service aces. Six additional aces came from senior Taylor Violet (Tiverton, R.I.), who also totaled 44 assists and nine digs. Defensively, senior Dianna Tauro (Melrose, Mass.) and junior Chrissy Fraga (Milford, Mass.) went for 16 and 11 digs, respectively.

For the Nor'easters, senior Leah Janelle (Madbury, N.H.) registered a career-best 17 kills with a .390 attack percentage. First-year Courtney Lambrese (Cranston, R.I.) and sophomore Grayson Szczepaniak (Lakewood, Ohio) combined for 13 winners and accounted for portions of five UNE rejections. Sophomore Erika Sawicki (Wilbraham, Mass.) tallied a pair of solo blocks to go with two block assists. Sophomore Nikki Mathewson (Merrimack, N.H.) notched team-highs of 14 digs and four aces. First-year Brooke Gibbons (Miami, Fla.) helped guide the attack with 33 assists, and added 10 digs.

The opening frame featured 13 ties and seven lead-changes, with the largest advantage either way came at 10-5 UNE. After the Seahawks closed the gap to 12-10, the margin never expanded past two the rest of the way. Janelle put down her fifth kill of the set to knot things up at 24-all, and two attack errors by Salve gave the hosts an edge.

Big Blue carried the momentum of the lead into the 2nd and built a 6-1 behind four straight winners from senior Rachel McGahie (Westmoreland, N.H.), Janelle (2), and Lambrese. However, SRU came alive shortly after and reeled off a 21-2 run that included all of Duggan's eight kills and Kuck's three aces in the stanza.

The third set was tight (5-5) in the early stages, until an 14-5 spurt by the visitors opened up a comfortable lead.

UNE held a slim 10-9 edge in the 4th before 10 of next 11 points went the way of the Seahawks. In the waning moments, Duggan recorded her final two kills to wrap up the match.