BENNINGTON, Vt. – The New England Collegiate Conference Women's Volleyball Tournament semifinal match pitted the No. 2 Nighthawks of Newbury College against the third-seeded Regis College Pride. The match was a tightly contested one that saw Regis victorious in the upset, 3-1.

Regis won the match with game scores of 25-18, 25-13, 21-25, and 25-18.

The Pride came out firing on all cylinders as they took the first two sets. In the first, they managed a team attack percentage of .167; in the second set, however, they turned that up a notch with an attack percentage of .278.

Newbury would not see their season come to an end without a fight as a series of rousing speeches from Head Coach Clint Whelan motivated them to take the third set in which they had 13 kills on 38 attempts.

Unfortunately for the Nighthawks, it wouldn't seem to be enough as Regis came out in the fourth set and shut the door. With the score tied at fourteen apiece, the Pride scored six-straight points to take the lead in the match for good.

Regis was led by junior captain Sara Gold (North Hollywood, Calif.) who had 15 digs. Pride sophomore Samantha Bliss (Framingham, Mass.) had 10 kills, only committing one hitting error on 23 attempts for a match-best .391 hitting percentage. Sophomore Marilia Ramos (Chimbote, Peru) helped the effort with 30 assists.

The Nighthawks saw big games from sophomore Syndey Fish (Kalamazoo, Mich.) who had a match-high 12 kills and Sara Hanna (Center Moriches, N.Y.) who added 11 more. Senior Sarah Young (Waterloo, N.Y.) recorded a team-high 26 assists, while senior captain Talia Martinez(Malibu, Calif.) had a match-high 19 digs; junior captain Jessy Touron (Brockton, Mass.) followed that up with 15 digs of her own.

The Pride are set to face the top-seeded Southern Vermont College Mountaineers on Saturday at Southern Vermont with a 2 p.m. NECC Championship match.

Release courtesy of Southern Vermont College Sports Information