Volleyball Takes Down Elms in Five

CHICOPEE, Mass.— MCLA's Elizabeth Brown and Chloie Garber posted double-doubles leading the Trailblazers to a 3-2 nonconference win at Elms College tonight. With the win MCLA improves to 7-13 (2-1 MASCAC) while the Blazers fall to 2-18 (1-7 GNAC).

Knotted up at 9-9, MCLA went on a 16-4 run highlighted by a 7-point Garber (10 kills, 20 digs, 2 aces) sevice run along with a set-point kill by Caroline Schmaling (4 kills) to take the first set, 25-13.

Elms answered with an impressive second set jumping out to an early 12-6 advantage then stretching the lead to 18-10 before ultimately taking the set 25-18 to even the match.

The third set proved to be nearly a carbon copy of the first. With the teams tied 8-8, back-to back Brown (14 kills, 16 digs) kills would punctuate a 17-6 run to win the set 25-14 and put MCLA back on top, 2-1.

The Trailblazers led nearly the entire fourth set, but the hosts proved resilient. Elms caught MCLA at 19-19 and the teams found themselves tied again at 21-21 before the Blazers four-point run forced a fifth and deciding set.

The Trailblazers would never trail in the fifth, steadily building their lead before a Makenna Carter (9 kills, .412 hitting %) kill finally sealed the set, 15-8 and the match, 3-2.

Elms was led by Alysha Izquirdo (13 kills, 14 digs) and Quiana Gibbs 12 kills, 17 digs).

MCLA's Ezmeralda Albright collected a game-high 29 digs while setters Addison Decaro and Shannon O'Brien each dished out 20 assists.

Both teams return to conference play next week with Elms hosting Johnson & Wales on Wednesday and MCLA heading to Framingham State for a rematch of last season's epic MASCAC Championship on Tuesday at 7:15pm

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