October 6, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Carole Grills
(413) 585-2703

Volleyball Vies for Third Place at Seven Sisters Championship

Northampton, MA: The Pioneers defeated Elms College 3-0 but fell to Wellesley 0-3 today at Vassar College in the first day of the 2007 Seven Sisters Volleyball Championship. Smith will face Bryn Mawr tomorrow at 10 am for third place.

In their first match of the day, Smith defeated Elms 30-12, 30-15 and 30-16.  The Pioneers jumped out to big leads in each game led by Bethany Weiss (Windham, NH) with 9 kills, Catherine Shafer (Red Bluff, CA) with 8 kills and Laurel Belton (San Bernadino, CA) with six.  Rachel Lackert (Cold Springs Harbor, NY) had eight digs and Shafer had seven.  Mikal Minarich (Hobart, IN) contributed with 18 assists while Belton added seven.

In the second match of the day for Smith, the Pioneers fell 26-30, 24-30 and 15-30 to Wellesley.  Smith jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the first game but Wellesley fought back to tie it at 15. The lead exchanged hands a few times until Wellesley was able to take a 28-25 lead that the Pioneers couldn't overcome.  The second game was very similar, but with the teams tied at 24, Wellesley went on a 6-0 run to win it. Wellesley jumped out to a 10-5 lead in the final game and went on to take it 30-15.   Brianne Connizzo (Demarest, NJ) had 17 digs while Shafer added 11. Minarich tallied 11 assists and Lauren Martinez (Phoenix, AZ) added 9 while Weiss and Courtney Parker (Berlin, MD) each had 6 kills.