NEW YORK, N.Y. (October 5, 2024) – The Western New England women's volleyball team picked up their third and fourth straight victories at the John Jay tri-match on Saturday afternoon, sweeping both John Jay (3-0) and Ramapo College (3-0) to improve to 13-3 on the season. 

Records:

• Western New England; 13-3
• Ramapo College: 2-10
• John Hay College: 11-5

How it Happened (vs. Ramapo College):

A fast start in the opening set for the Golden Bears gave Western New England a quick 6-1 lead in the match. Alissa Hawes picked up the opening kill of the game while Taylor Geist and Yemayma Molina grabbed a combined block to continue a strong opening for WNE. Geist would notched a kill while Becca Mayer earned the Golden Bears back-to-back service aces. Western New England would continue to dominate, picking up kills from Isabelle Petty, Leah Warren, and Léa Barber, giving the Golden Bears a 12-4 lead. The Ramapo College Roadrunners would pick up three consecutive points on attacking errors by the Golden Bears, though this would not set WNE down from taking the opening set. Petty. Hawes and Warren would all shine again, picking up three kills in a row for WNE, pushing the score to 20-11. Western New England finished off the opening set with a kill from Molina, while an attacking error by the Roadrunners was all Western New England would need to close out the set, a 25-16 victory, taking a 1-0 match lead.

The second set would see more back-and-forth action as Ramapo would take the early 4-2 lead on a kill by Riley Stewart. From there, Western New England would respond with eight of the next ten points, including six in a row, to open up a five-point lead. Isabelle Petty knocked down two kills for WNE while Leah Warren was back on the attack, pushing down a kill of her own, giving the Golden Bears a 10-5 lead. Western New England's five-point lead would remain after going point for point with Ramapo heading into a three-point swing that took WNE from up four to up seven after Becca Mayer mastered a service ace. The Roadrunners would fight back, scoring four straight points to diminish WNE's lead to just three points. From there, Western New England would pick up the next five points, turning a 19-16 lead into a 14-16 lead, seeing Léa Barber and Yemayma Molina pick up kills while Laney Melvin would collect two service aces to give the Golden Bears the big lead. Barber would wrap up the set on the 25^th point of the second set, smashing down a kill on a feed from Taylor Geist, picking up the second set victory for the Golden Bears, a 25-17 win, taking a 2-0 sets lead.

WNE picked up three points in a row to open the third set, taking advantage of three errors by the Roadrunners to start the match. Western New England's lead would grow to four after Alissa Hawes would smash down a kill to make the score 7-3 in favor of the blue and gold. Ramapo would collect four straight points to get right back into the match, picking up two kills from Amanda Fatouh and another from Emily Shea, seeing Western New England's 11-6 lead drop to an 11-10 lead. WNE would take exception to that run, putting together an 8-0 run to grab a commanding 19-10 lead. During the run, Alyzza Alicea would shine in service while Ava Cariddi and Yemayma Molina would pick up kills for the Golden Bears, leading to the nine-point advantage. Ramapo would look to get back into the set after putting together a small run of five points out of six in a row to drop WNE's lead to 22-17, but the 17^th point of the match would be the final one for the Roadrunners on the afternoon as the Golden Bears would finish off Ramapo with three points in a row, ending the match on a Rachel Critz kill from Madison Stauss, giving the Golden Bears a 25-17 victory in the third set and a 3-0 match victory.

Inside the Lines:

• The service game proved to be the bright spot of the match for the Golden Bears, seeing 12 service aces come about for the blue and gold. Both Becca Mayer and Alyzza Alicea would pick up three service aces each for Western New England.
• The Golden Bears hit .258% as a team, led by Alissa Hawes, who hit .333% from the floor, picking up 11 kills on 24 total attacks. Leah Warren knocked down five kills for the Golden Bears while all of Taylor Geist, Yemayma Molina, Léa Barber and Isabelle Petty put together five kills each.
• Western New England never trailed in the first and third sets and trailed just twice in the second set, a 1-0 deficit, followed by 4-2 and 5-4 deficits before coming back to take the set.
• Taylor Geist led the way with 33 set assists for WNE in the match.

How It Happened: vs. John Jay College

The WNE women's volleyball team picked up right where they left off in the second match of the day against the Bloodhounds of John Jay College. Yemayma Molina picked up a kill on WNE's second point of the afternoon that gave the Golden Bears a quick 2-0 lead. WNE extended their lead to 5-2 on a kill from Isabelle Petty on a helper from Taylor Geist. Western New England's lead would continue to grow, getting up to five and then six after an attacking error from Josanne Lewis while Taylor Geist would pick up a kill from Léa Barber, giving the Golden Bears a 12-6 lead. The Golden Bears wouldn't have much of a problem cruising through the opening set as WNE would next pick up a series of eight points out of ten, seeing Alissa Hawes strike for two kills while Leah Warren dropped one of her own, giving Western New England a 20-10 lead. Hawes would wrap up the opening set in favor of Western New England, setting the Golden Bears to a 25-20 opening set win. WNE collected 11 kills on 34 attacks in the opening set, while John Jay had ten kills of their own, though committed ten errors.

Léa Barber picked up a service ace for Western New England to start the second set, as both teams would go point for point all the way down to John Jay taking a 9-8 lead. Western New England would begin to break away from there, seeing Alissa Hawes drop two kills while Becca Mayer would collect a service ace. WNE would finish their run that led to a 14-10 lead on a block from Leah Warren and Isabelle Petty. The Golden Bears would hold their lead for the rest of the way, putting together another run late in the second set, which saw four straight bounce the score to 24-17 in favor of WNE. Hawes would pick up two kills for WNE in the run while Western New England would pick up the final point of the match to take a 25-20 victory on another kill from Warren, giving the Golden Bears a two sets to none lead in the match. WNE collected a match-high 14 kills in the second set.

The Golden Bears would get off to a 4-0 start in the third set, seeing Léa Barber collect a kill and excellent service to put the Golden Bears ahead. John Jay would quickly get back into the match, seeing WNE's 4-0 and 5-1 lead sink down to a 6-5 lead after the Bloodhounds would pick up two kills from Paige Sadowitz. The Bloodhounds would climb all the way back out of the four-point hole and take their first lead of the set at 11-10 on a kill from Madison Reyes. WNE would not let the Bloodhounds lead move to more than one point, as the Golden Bears would take the lead back at 14-13 on another kill from Alissa Hawes. The Golden Bears would get their lead back up to four, leading 20-16, though the Bloodhounds would pick up five straight points from there to take a 21-20 lead, taking advantage of three attacking errors from Western New England. The Golden Bears would not let John Jay move the match past the third set, picking up five of the final seven points of the third set, including a service ace on the final point of the match from Becca Mayer, giving WNE a 25-23 third set victory and a 3-0 match win.

Inside the Lines:

• Alissa Hawes picked up 15 kills in the three-set win for the Golden Bears, a match high for all players. Taylor Geist notched 29 set assists for the Golden Bears, also a match high.
• WNE hit .137% for the match, collecting 37 kills on 117 attacks in the match.
• The Bloodhounds were turned aside in the opening set with their ten errors and could not come back in the match, falling in the first ever meeting between the two teams.

Coaches Corner:

• When asked about his teams four game win streak, Head Coach Matt Lein had high praise for his team's efforts. "Honestly we are starting to pass much better. Becca (Mayer) has always been a passing leader for us and now she has some support in Alissa (Hawes)  and Léa (Barber)  and it just really clicked for them as a unit today. I expect us to keep grinding away at practice and get ready for a very tough opponent in Suffolk."

Up Next on the Schedule:

• The Golden Bears return to Conference of New England (CNE) play for their first CNE road match, traveling to Suffolk University on Wednesday, October 9 at 7:00 PM.