September 12, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Carole Grills
(413) 585-2703

Volleyball Defeats Elms, Drops Close Match to Colby-Sawyer

Northampton, MA: The Pioneers traveled to Chicopee, Massachusetts this afternoon to take on Elms and Colby-Sawyer College. Smith defeated their host in three straight sets but lost a close match to Colby-Sawyer, 3-2.

In their first match against Elms (25-8, 25-18, 25-16), the Pioneers were led by Stephanie Bleyendaal (Boston, MA) and Shakwana Etienne (West Orange, NJ) who each had nine kills while Laurel Belton (San Bernadino, CA) added eight kills.  Junior setter Lauren Martinez (Phoenix, AZ) and Belton each served four aces for Smith while first year Blair Bell (Upper Montclair, NJ) contributed with 10 digs.

In the 2-3 loss to Colby-Sawyer (26-24, 25-21, 18-25, 19-25, 20-22), co-captain Bethany Weiss (Windham, NH) led the way with 19 kills, one service ace and two blocks.  Etienne had 12 kills with one block, Martinez 27 assists and two service aces, Courtney Faria (Pocasset, MA) 17 assists, Brianne Connizzo (Demarest, NJ) tallied 29 digs while Belton registered 28 digs with four service aces.

Coach Angela Mills was pleased with today's performance. "We played some really good uptempo offense and had great serves.  We look forward to opening NEWMAC play on Tuesday against Babson."

                                                          1            2          3
Smith (1-1)                                        25          25         25
Elms (2-3)                                           8          18         16

                                                          1         2      3      4     5
Smith (1-2)                                       26       25    18     19    20
Colby-Sawyer                                  24       21    25     25    22