Northampton, MA --- Smith's Mia Etheridge (Half Moon Bay, CA) and Abby Hunt (Mandeville, LA) paced the hosting Pioneers with double-digit kills in a sweep over WPI in a midweek match at Ainsworth Gym.
 
WPI dips to 5-9 overall and 0-3 in play NEWMAC while the Pioneers advance to 15-1 overall and 4-0 conference play.
 
The hosts jumped out to a quick lead propelled by Etheridge and Hunt and Abby Sweeney (Spring, TX) who dominated the offensive attack for Smith. Audrey Stroupe (Leesburg, MA) and Fiona Gillis (Manchester, NH) registered kills early before Anastasia Kelnik (Fair Lawn, NJ) and Zeala VanDamme (San Diego, CA) tacked on kills of their own to keep the first set within reach. Smith then posted a 10-4 run to close out the first set 25-14.
 
In the second set, WPI rallied from a 10-point deficit at 21-11 as the Engineers took advantage of multiple attack errors by the hosts and a Victoria Escuer (Caracas, Venezuela) ace kickstarted an offensive attack leading to kills by Gillis and VanDamme bringing the set to 19-23 before Smith extended the match lead to 2-0 at 25-20.
 
Smith then jumped out to an 11-3 lead quickly in the third set before Lily Eldridge (Danvers, MA) and Emily Hudson (Melrose, MA) recorded kills and aces to keep the set close as Stroupe and attack errors by the hosts brought the set score to 11-17 in favor of the hosts. A pair of Gillis alternated with Smith before Anna Feuer (Frederick, MD) and Hunt kicked off the final stretch of points to claim the 3-0 sweep.
 
WPI hosts Coast Guard in a conference battle on Saturday at 1pm. Smith competes in a quadrangular this weekend in New York City beginning Friday at NYU versus Trinity University (Texas) and the #11-ranked Violets.