Box
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St. Mary's City, Md. - Three Seahawks finished
with 10 kills each to help second-seeded St. Mary's College of
Maryland post a come-from-behind 3-1 (18-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-23)
victory over third-seeded Stevenson University Thursday night in
one of two Capital Athletic Conference semifinal matches.
St. Mary's (27-6) now advances to its second straight CAC title
match where the Seahawks will face No. 20 Salisbury University for
the second year in the row as the top-seeded Sea Gulls eliminated
fourth-seeded University of Mary Washington, 3-1, in tonight's
other semifinal contest. The championship match will be this
Saturday, November 8 at Salisbury. Game time is yet to be
determined.
The Mustangs (31-7) earned a 25-18 triumph in the first set
after jumping out to a 12-3 advantage behind three kills from
sophomore outside hitter Dani Katsampis (New
Windsor, Md./Francis Scott Key) and two each from senior outside
hitter Alana Eller (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial)
and sophomore middle blocker Alex Mercer
(Eldersburg, Md./Liberty).
St. Mary's started the second set down 9-4 before a kill by
freshman middle blocker Gena Hlvanika
(Gaithersburg, Md./T.S. Wootton) and four straight Mustang errors
helped the Seahawks knot the set at 9-9.
Eller's kill gave Stevenson its last lead in the
set at 10-9 as St. Mary's used an 8-1 run to take control and notch
a 25-20 win to tie the match at 1-1. Junior outside hitter
Katie Ewing (Gaithersburg, Md./Quince Orchard) had
four kills in the set, while fellow classmate Sarah
Gregorini (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial) added three.
Stevenson overcame a 10-6 deficit in the third set and finally
took the lead at 21-19 but the Seahawks kept battling on and a pair
of bad sets by the Mustangs helped St. Mary's seal the 25-23
win. Junior middle blocker Jen Lamar
(Collegeville, Pa./Spring-Ford) aided the SMCM cause with four
kills.
A kill by senior middle blocker Becca Tursell
(Ellicott City, Md./Glenelg) put St. Mary's on the verge of winning
the match as Tursell's kill gave her squad a 24-21
edge. But the Mustangs' Mercer and freshman
Alexa Carney (Towson, Md./Towson) tallied
back-to-back kills to bring SU within 24-23. However,
Ewing's kill put an end to the
match and punched the Seahawks' ticket to the CAC title match.
Lamar, Ewing and
Gregorini each had 10 kills for the Seahawks,
while Tursell chipped in eight and three block
assists. Gregorini finished the match with a
double-double as she also had a match-high 21 digs. Junior
setter Jenn Feldmann (Ellicott City,
Md./Centennial) dished out 30 assists.
Stevenson was led by Katsampis' match-high 13
kills while Eller contributed a dozen.
Eller also registered a double-double with 20
digs.
