NEW LONDON, Conn. – It took a little over an hour for the No.13 ranked Wesleyan volleyball team to dispatch Coast Guard in a three-set sweep on Saturday afternoon from Roland Gymnasium. The Cardinals (16-2) are winners of four straight while the Bears (12-8) lose a second straight match.
Wesleyan put on a hitting clinic on Saturday, registering 39 kills against just four errors on 77 swings, hitting a season-high .455 in the match. That hitting percentage is the highest for Wesleyan in a single-match since the Cardinals hit .476 against Eastern Nazarene in the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
The Cardinals laid down a marker in the opening set, taking a 25-7 win with Wesleyan hitting .696 in the frame (16 kills, 0 errors, 23 attempts). Eight different Cardinals had at least one kill in the opening set as Wesleyan turned a 4-2 lead into a 17-3 advantage thanks to a 13-1 run. Defensively, Wesleyan shined as Coast Guard hit a negative percentage in the first set with five kills and six attack errors on 28 attempts.
The second set featured a couple lead changes in the early going, until an 8-1 run turned a tied score into a 13-6 Wesleyan lead. Neither team won more than two consecutive points until the late stages when a 3-0 Cardinal run helped secure a 25-17 second set win. Wesleyan hit .423 in the second set with 13 kills on 26 attempts.
Siena Steines '28 went 4-for-4 on her attempts in the frame.
Coast Guard kept it close in the early stages of the third set, but Wesleyan proved too much as a 10-2 swing in favor of the Cardinals opened up a 18-9 lead. The Bears found their footing as the third set went along, staving off three match points, before the Cardinals got a match-winning kill from
Katelyn Olin '27 in a 25-18 third set win. Wesleyan hit .429 in the third set with 14 kills on 28 attempts while
Ella Blair '28 dished out an assist on 12 of those 14 kills.
Eight different Cardinals registered at least two kills with Steines leading the way with eight kills on 11 swings.
Fiona LaCamera '27 went 7-for-10 on her swings with no errors and two blocks. Olin and
India Clark '28 put up identical stat lines with five kills and a .444 hitting percentage.
Elliana Moreno '27 totaled 14 digs which pushed her over 1,000 digs for her career, becoming the first Cardinal since Jenna Otaola '22, G'23 to reach the milestone.
Wesleyan ends the regular season with three home matches next week, starting with a Tuesday night non-conference match against Roger Williams at 7 PM.
