Volleyball

Casey Reed '12 Pounds out 14 Kills, Claire Larson '15 Makes 34 Assists as Cards Roll Past RIC, 3-0, Before Team Opens Colonial Classic at WCSU with Win over Babson

Wesleyan made short work of its 27th all-time meeting with Rhode Island College Tues., Oct. 18 with a 3-0 victory, winning 25-14, 25-15, 25-12. It was the Cardinals' seventh straight win over the Anchorwomen and improved Wesleyan lead in the overall series to 19-8.

Casey Reed '12 (#6, main photo) paced the potent Cardinal attack with 14 kills while Monica Leslie '14 added seven '14 and Kim Farris '14 had six.  Setter Claire Larson '15 (#13, photo insert upper right) tossed up 34 assists, a strong 11.3 average per set.  Wesleyan enjoyed a stellar .313 team hitting percentage with Farris hitting .500 and Reed coming through with a .357 figure.  Leslie and Idara Foster '15 each had three blocks for the Cardinals while libero Jeanne McPhee '13 collected 15 digs.
   
Wesleyan pulled away from a 5-5 deadlock in the first set with six straight point to take an 11-5 edge and never looked back.  Another 6-2 run made it 18-7 before the Cardinals opened up their largest margin at 24-12.  That score came through in both the second and third sets as well.  RIC staved off a pair of potential first-set points before Wesleyan closed it out, 25-14.

The Cardinals raced out to a 7-2 lead in the second set, pushed the margin to 19-9 and went on for a 25-15 victory.  The third set was tied 4-4 before another 6-0 Wesleyan run made it 10-4.  The Cardinals took seven of the next 10 points for a 17-7 cushion and wrapped up the set and match with a 25-12 win.

Next up for Wesleyan was a trip to Western Connecticut for the Colonial Classic over the weekend of Fri.-Sat., Oct. 21-22.  Wesleyan took on Babson in its opening match Friday before closing out the tournament with matches against USMMA and the host on Saturday.

Leslie put away 12 kills in a 3-1 victory over the Beavers as the Cardinals captured a 25-22, 25-23, 22-25, 25-16 win to up their record vs. Babson to 3-0 all-time.  Reed added 10 kills while Farris picked up nine.  Larson connected fof 38 assists and Farris rejected seven Babson attacks for a seven-block night.  In the ace department, Laura Yim '13 was good for five in a strong performance.  McPhee had her usual solid effort defensively with 20 digs.