Pride Volleyball Rallies for Road Victory

WELLESLEY, Mass. – For the second time in 11 days, Regis College rallied from a 2-0 deficit on the road against a neighboring school, coming from behind to defeat Wellesley College, 3-2 (19-25, 20-25, 25-19, 25-19, 15-4), Wednesday night in a non-conference women's collegiate volleyball match at Towne Fieldhouse.

Rita Dow (Nashua, N.H.) and Kate Montigny (Shrewsbury, Mass.) led the Pride offensively with 12 kills apiece, while Kamdyn Tenorio (Irvine, Calif.) paced the squad with seven service aces and 17 defensive digs to go along with eight kills. Ahnasia Mckinney (Chelmsford, Mass.) notched a double-double with a career-high 35 assists along with 10 digs, and Aryam Serrano-Monserrate (Lake Forest, Calif.) contributed 13 digs.

Down two sets to zero, Regis scored the first three points of the third set, but Wellesley quickly responded with a 9-2 scoring run to pull ahead, 10-6. The Pride rattled off eight unanswered points, capped by kills from Valerie Whalen (Stoughton, Mass.) and Tenorio, to retake the lead at 14-10. Regis maintained its advantage and eventually clinched the set thanks to two kills from Montigny.

In the fourth set, Regis took an 11-8 lead on a kill by Tenorio before Wellesley put together an 8-1 scoring run, led by four kills from Kate Salembier. The Pride responded with seven straight points, including two aces from Tenorio, and eventually closed out the fourth set on a kill by Tenorio and a Wellesley attack error.

The Pride scored the first eight points of the deciding set, led by Tenorio with three aces and Ayla Albers (San Diego, Calif.) with consecutive kills. Montigny collected three straight kills to bring about match point, and Regis clinched the set and the match on an error by the Blue.

Salembier led Wellesley with 15 kills along with 12 digs, while Jennifer Yu finished with 14 kills and 13 digs. Mikayla Tansil nearly notched her own double-double with 37 assists and nine digs, and Kaija Kunze-Hoeg led all players with 31 defensive digs.

After posting a hitting percentage of .254 in winning the first two sets, Wellesley was held to a .011 hitting percentage in the final three sets. On the other side, Regis saved its best hitting for the final set, going 8-for-14 on attack attempts without an error for a .571 hitting percentage.

Regis College (16-10) heads to Plymouth, N.H., for a tri-match Saturday, Oct. 22, first facing Eastern Connecticut State at 2 p.m. before taking on host Plymouth State at 4 p.m.