Wenham, MA --- The WPI volleyball team split a pair of non-conference matches on the road at Gordon on Saturday. The Engineers opened the day with a 3-1 (27-25, 25-16, 16-25, 28-26) win over the hosts but fell 3-0 to Colby (25-23, 25-16, 25-22) in the second match. WPI improves to 9-7 on the season. Gordon dipped to 9-10 with the loss, while Colby improved to 9-4. 

Match 1: WPI 3, Gordon 1

The Engineers opened the day with a tight 3-1 win over host Gordon. Audrey Stroupe (Leesburg, VA) led the way offensively, with a collegiate-best 13 kills, while Emily Hudson (Melrose, MA) notched eight kills and three blocks and Maddie Sanborn (Londonderry, NH) had eight kills with five digs. Olivia Deckers (Marlboro, MA) notched seven kills with a team-high eight digs, while Catherine Reynolds (Concord, NH) had 31 assists with five kills and five digs. 

Gordon's offense saw three players in double-figures in kills — Annie Murphy (Wenham, MA) and Valerie Nilan (Valley Cottage, NY) with 13, and Joey Keltner (Anacortes, WA) with 10. Kate Howe (Belfast, NY) dished out 36 assists, while Nikki Batson (Windham, NH) led all players with 16 digs. 

Both the first and the fourth sets went into extra points, as WPI took the close match. The Engineers worked around an offensive edge from Gordon (.241 to .159) with 14 total aces on the day, including four from Reynolds and three each from Deckers and Jia Yazon (South Windsor, CT). 

Set one was tied nine times before WPI got the final blows at the end. Neither team led by more than four in the frame, with the Engineers going up 14-10 midway through action, but Gordon leading 21-18 late. The Engineers battled back to tie the frame at 23-23 and it was tied twice more before back-to-back blocks from WPI's Natalia Wierzbicki (Wareham, MA) and Stroupe won it 27-25. 

The Engineers went up 2-0, never trailing in the second set. Tied at 8-8, WPI held the lead from there on, closing out the win at 25-16. Gordon answered with a matching victory in the third set, taking it 25-16 to cut the advantage to 2-1. 

In the fourth frame, WPI took control of the set after an 11-11 tie, rattling off an 8-3 run to go up 19-14. Gordon tied things at 19-19 with five unanswered points, but again the Engineers surged, going up 24-19. Gordon answered by fighting off set and match point six times, taking a 26-25 lead, but kills from Hudson, Stroupe, and Deckers sealed the set and match for WPI. 

Match 2: Colby 3, WPI 0

The Engineers suffered a 3-0 sweep at the hands of Colby in the second match of the afternoon. Sanborn led the WPI offense with eight kills, adding six digs, while Stroupe and Deckers each added six kills. Reynolds notched 21 assists with six digs, while Victoria Escuer (Caracas, Venezuela) had nine digs and Alana Harris (Lowell, MA) added seven. 

Colby was paced by 14 kills and nine digs from LJ Grant (New York, NY) while Emma Davis (Cranberry Township, PA) had 12 kills. Susie Mueller (East Greenwich, RI) dished out 19 assists, while Alli McKenney (San Carlos, CA) led all players with 12 digs. 

In set one, WPI broke an early 6-6 tie with an 8-3 surge to take a 13-9 lead. Colby battled back to tie the match at 15-15 and then took a 20-17 lead on a WPI error. The Engineers rallied again to go up 23-21 on a Stroupe kill, but Colby scored the next four points to take it 25-23. 

WPI again had an early edge in the second set, going up 11-9 midway through the action. The Mules answered with a run to tie the match at 15-15, but WPI got back-to-back kills to lead 17-15. From there, it was all Colby, as the Mules closed the set with a 10-2 run to win it 25-19. 

The Engineers led 6-3 early in set three, but again Colby came back to tie. The frame stayed close, tied as late as 17-17 before WPI surged to a 22-19 advantage on an ace from Alexandra Spezzano (Medway, MA). Just like the first two sets, however, Colby battled back at the end, scoring the next six points to take the set 25-22 and the match, 3-0. 

WPI will head to Rochester next weekend, playing a three-match weekend at RIT. The Engineers open with Nazareth on Friday at 7pm and then will play RIT (11am) and St. John Fisher (1pm) on Saturday. Colby has a mid-week match-up at home against Elms on Tuesday at 5pm, while Gordon plays at Wentworth on Wednesday at 7pm.