WORCESTER -- Addison Klunder (Los Angeles, CA) registered a double-double with a hitting percentage of .452 to propel visiting Smith to a 3-1 triumph over WPI in a NEWMAC volleyball contest played Thursday evening inside Harrington Auditorium.
 
Smith is now 11-7 on the season and 2-2 in conference play while the Engineers dip to 8-7 overall and 1-3 in NEWMAC action.

Smith established a lead early in the first set jumping out to a 12-5 mark with four kills and seven errant attacks by the hosts. The visiting Bears continued to tack on kills from Alison Chapin (Temecula, CA), Anna Feuer (Frederick, MD), and Mia Etheridge (Half Moon Bay, CA) to increase the lead to 19-9 before Zeala VanDamme (San Diego, CA) and Anastasia Kelnik (Fair Lawn, NJ) and Smith's Abby Hunt (Mandeville, LA) exchanged kills. Service errors and service aces alternated to close out the first set as Smith took the 25-13 win. 

WPI's Bridget Spees (Saint Johns, FL) Olivia Hutchinson (Erie, PA) and Julia Colantuoni (Amherst, NH) paced the attack for the Crimson and Gray as Smith's Klunder, Etheridge and Hunt's offense kept the second set close at 10-10 as both squads continued to alternate leads. Errors ensued for the hosts as the Bears took an 18-14 lead prior to the Engineers posting five kills en route to regaining the set lead at 22-21. Smith closed out the set taking advantage of a service error in addition to three-consecutive kills from Klunder and Feuer for the 25-22 win. 

Both teams continued to strike as WPI and Smith totaled 12 kills as the visitors claimed a 12-8 lead over the Engineers powered by four kills from Spees and three from Klunder. Errant attacks and serves continued to rack up bringing the match to within two as WPI enjoyed a 16-14 lead. From that point on, the Crimson and Gray recorded one more kill and pulled away due to attacking and service errors by the Bears en route to the 25-21 third set victory. 

Smith surged in the fourth set due to attack and ball handling miscues as the Bears marked a 10-7 lead. WPI's Spees, Colantuoni and VanDamme recorded the final successful strikes for the Crimson and Gray but fell short as the visitors recorded 11 kills in their next 15 points en route to the 25-16 win to close out the match at 3-1 over the Engineers.

Colantuoni and Spees paced WPI offensive with eight kills apiece with Spees reaching double figure in digs with 12.  Victoria Escuer (Caracas, Venezuela) led all players with a match-best 27 digs while Lauren Boycourt (San Diego, CA) doled out a team-best 17 assists. VanDamme added five kills and swatted three blocks (two solo) and Preslie Jerebker (Denver, CO) chipped in with six assists and six digs.
 
Klunder totaled 15 kills and made just one error on 31 attempts to go along with 17 digs for the Bears. Etheridge and Chapin each smashed 10 kills, while Abby Hunt amassed eight as the Bears hit .252 for the match.  Skye Higashihara (Honolulu, HI) also double-doubled, contributing 20 assists and 11 digs, as did Etheridge (11 digs), while Feuer notched seven blocks (three solo) and Maddie Hliboki (Valley Village, CA) finished with eight assists and seven digs.
 
Both teams conclude a busy week of conference action on Saturday with their third NEWMAC match in five days.  WPI makes the short trek down Park Ave. to face city rival Clark at 11am in a tri-match that includes Conn College while Smith ventures to Norton to square off with Wheaton at 1pm.