AMHERST, Mass. – After holding their nerve to land a 26-24 first set win that went into extra points, the No. 11 Wesleyan volleyball team rolled in the second and third sets to secure a three-set sweep of Amherst on Friday night from LeFrak Gymnasium. Wesleyan improves to 10-0 for the fourth time in team history and for the third time in five seasons, having won 23 consecutive sets.
The opening set saw Wesleyan use a 6-0 run to build a 12-6 lead, forcing an Amherst timeout. The Mammoths, however, pushed back in a big way with a 10-1 run of their own to swing momentum and the lead. The back-and-forth set continued with a 5-1 Cardinal run as the score tied 11 times in the first set alone. The Cardinals looked to have secured a triumph with the score at 24-21 but Amherst staved off three set points for Wesleyan to tie the score and send the set into extra points. Down but not out, Wesleyan got a much-needed block from
Siena Steines '28 and converted what was the fourth set point of the frame on a
Mila Chan '28 service ace to secure the 26-24 win.
The second set was one-way traffic in favor of the Cardinals who took an early 6-2 lead and didn't trail for the remainder of the set. Wesleyan went on a 5-0 run to turn a three-point lead into an eight-point advantage. It was late 18-8 in favor of Wesleyan before the Cardinals finished off a convincing 25-13 second set win. Amherst struggled throughout the second set, committing more attack errors (eight) than kills (seven) while Amherst also had four service errors and a set error in the frame.
Wesleyan was at their best in the third set, hitting a match-high .308 in the frame with 16 kills and four errors on 39 swings. The ball spread around as five Cardinals had at least two kills in the third set alone, with Steines hitting .571 (four kills on seven attempts) to lead the way. Amherst led 10-7 and continued to hold a slim lead up until the Cardinals tied the score at 16 apiece before ratting off a 9-1 run to close out a 25-17 third set win and secure another three-set sweep.
The Cardinals finished with 59 digs as a team, tied for the team's second-highest three-set single-match total on the season. Chan and
Elliana Moreno '27 tied for the team-lead with 11 digs each while
Alexa Schnell '29 totaled nine.
Carly Grumet '28 had a team-high nine kills to lead a contingent of five Cardinals who posted at least six kills in the match. Steines finished with eight kills while
Fiona LaCamera '27 led the Cardinals with a .400 attack percentage (seven kills, one error, 15 swings).
Paulina Marino-Bindi '27 landed four of her six kills in the first set alone while she added three blocks.
Wesleyan has a full week to prepare for a pair of in-state away NESCAC matches against Trinity (Oct. 2) and Conn. College (Oct. 3) next weekend.
