Nashua – Junior Chelsey Crawford (Westfield, Mass.) notched a match high 14 kills, junior Samantha Hill (Hudson, N.H.) knocked down six kills and senior Kate-Lynn Breault (Hudson) chipped in with five guiding host Daniel Webster past Regis College, 3-o in the first New England Collegiate Conference match between the two Saturday at Mario Vagge Gymnasium.
Jennifer Finneran (Barnstead, N.H.) added four kills and Caitlyn DePierro (Billerica, Mass.) dished off 22 assists as the Eagles (10-3, 1-0 NECC) won their conference opener by scores of 25-19, 25-21 and 25-19 and sent the visiting Pride (4-13, 0-1 NECC) to their sixth straight loss.
Julie Endara (Boca Raton, Fla.), Megan Pratt (Rockland, Mass.) and Anneliese Harrison (Holliston, Mass.) all registered five kills apiece to pace Regis. Caitlyn Walsh (Taunton, Mass.) added 14 assists and Jackie Silver (West Hill, Calif.) pulled in a match high 11 digs.
Both teams struggled throughout to establish a rhythm as the two combined for 21 serving errors and also struggled defensively with Regis hitting .112 on the day while the Eagles finished .229.
DWC hit just .188 in each of the opening sets before heating up to hit .312 in the third. Regis meanwhile finished at even keel (.000) in the opener, hit .111 and improved to .207 in the third.
In the opener, Regis jumped out to a 6-1 lead before Breault went to the line and rattled off seven straight points including four aces and Crawford followed with a kill for a 9-7 lead. Leading 20-19, DWC closed it out on a 5-0 run punctuated by a Hill kill and Crawford ace.
DWC trailed only once in the second (0-2) and took control with a 6-1 run at 9-8 behind kills from Breault and Crawford and three Regis unforced errors for a 15-9 advantage and the Eagles never let the Pride closer than four down the stretch.
Set three featured eight ties and three lead changes. Regis held a 15-12 lead as part of a five-point run from Endara at the line, but back-to-back kills from Crawford stemmed the bleeding to tie it and another kill from Hill gave the Eagles the lead for good a 17-16 and DWC would close it out with a 6-1 run ending on Crawford's 14th and final kill of the day.
The Crimson and Gold return to action Tuesday night when they take on the Blazers from Elms College at 7:00 p.m. The Eagles return to action on Tuesday, visiting Mitchell College for a NECC matchup beginning at 7:00 p.m.