Volleyball Ends Season with 3-0 Loss to Coast Guard in ECAC Quarters

New London, Conn. - Juniors Catherine Walker, Keriann Mason and sophomore Kelsey DePorto each had seven kills as top-seeded Coast Guard used a balanced attack to advance to the ECAC Division III Volleyball Championship semi-finals with a 3-0 win over eighth-seeded Framingham State in a first round match.  

Coast Guard, which improved to a perfect 11-0 at home this season, won by game scores of 25-17, 25-11, 25-13 to improve to 24-6 overall while Framingham State finishes the 2011 season 19-14.

The Bears will now host the semi-finals and championship on Saturday. Coast Guard will takeon fourth-seeded Keene State at 11:00 a.m. The second semifinal will be played at 2:00 p.m. The championship match will be played at 5 p.m.

Coast Guard jumped out to a quick 6-1 lead in the opener before the Rams used a run to cut the deficit to 9-8. The Bears responded with an 8-2 spurt to take a 17-10 lead. Framingham scored four straight to make it 17-14 before Coast Guard answered with five straight of its own for a 22-14 lead and won 25-17.

In the second game, Coast Guard led 9-5 used a 9-3 run to take an 18-8 lead and cruised to a 25-11 win.

The Bears scored the first six points of the third game and led 11-2. Framingham closed the gap to 15-10 before the Bears scored ten of the final 13 points for the 25-13 win.

Walker added a team-high eight digs to go with three aces while Mason and sophomore Sam Marmolejo each added seven digs for the Bears.

Freshman Kelsey Hickle had a team-high four aces while junior Karen Matic led the way with 12 assists and freshman Elise Sako added ten assists for Coast Guard.

Freshman Ashley Nee led the Rams with six kills while junior Jackie Friel added five kills. Freshman Michelle DeJesus led Framingham State with eight digs while freshman Morgan Drew had a match-high 17 assists for the Rams.

Coast Guard competing in the ECAC tournament for the eighth time since 2001, won the ECAC North Championship in 2002 and the ECAC New England Championship in 2005 and 2009.

Release coutesy of CGA Sports Information.