Volleyball opens league play with victory

Paige Hanssen (Dean Denis Photography)

WATERVILLE, Maine — The Colby College volleyball team opened New England Small College Athletic Conference play with an impressive 3-0 victory over Trinity College on Friday night at Wadsworth Gymnasium.

The Mules move to 4-3 overall and 1-0 in league play heading into Saturday’s 2 p.m. conference match with Wesleyan University. Trinity drops to 2-3 overall and heads to Bates College for a 2 p.m. match Saturday.

 

Colby won by set scores of 25-23, 25-20, 25-22.

 

Karolina Serhan, who missed Wednesday’s match with an injury, led the Mules with 11 kills and two blocks. She did not have an attack error and had a .667 attack percentage.

 

Sarah Arvidson also did not have an attack error in finishing with nine kills and eight defensive digs for Colby. Kim Donaldson smacked eight kills and had six blocks. Molly Manuel led the way in assists (16) and teammate Emily Moslener added 12.

 

Trinity’s Kate Giddens led all hitters with 15 kills and teammate Hunter Drews added eight kills. Rachel Underwood paced the Bantams with five service aces, while Gina Buzzelli had 31 assists and eight digs.

 

Colby had one of its toughest weekends of the 2014 season at home against Trinity and Wesleyan last year. The Mules lost a big lead in the fifth set in falling 3-2 to Wesleyan and then struggled the next day in a 3-0 loss to the Bantams.

 

The first set was terrific volleyball by both teams. There were 17 ties in the set, including the final at 23-23. Colby’s Sarah Arvidson had a touch shot winner for the 24th point and Natalie Roy hit a perfect shot down the line for the set.

 

The Bantams came out strong in the second set, taking a 5-1 margin at one point. However, the Mules chipped away at the lead and finally tied the match at 11-11. Colby took the lead for good at 16-15 and led by as much as four points. At 23-20, Donaldson had a block and Karolina Serhan followed with a kill for the final point.

 

The third set started with three straight Trinity points, but the Mules went on a 14-3 run to take control at 15-7. The Bantams got going as the set wore on and had the lead down to 23-22 on a kill by Kate Giddens. Serhan had a fist bump shot that landed for a winner for point 24 and first-year Erin Maidman followed with an ace to end the match.