Statistics

WENHAM, Mass. -- Gordon College turned around an early deficit to pick up a Conference of New England (CNE) result versus the University of New England, 3-1 (21-25, 25-19, 30-28, 25-19), at the Bennett Center on Wednesday night (Sep. 24).

Offensively for the Fighting Scots (11-4, 1-0 CNE), Haley Hutzler had 19 points on 16 kills and three service winners. Annie Zimmerman supported with 14 kills, while Teagan Brideweser tacked on 13 behind a .391 attack percentage.

On the side of the Nor'easters (5-7, 0-1), Ellijah Hanley put up a match-best 19 kills. Hannah Nowell contributed nine, Chloe Miracle chipped in with eight, and Kendall Gallaugher supplied six kills on 11 swings (.455).

Both setters were among the four players with double-doubles. Annika Schmitt framed 50 assists to go with 10 digs for the hosts, while Hayley Shult went for 35 and 10 for UNE.

Even with UNE's four five-set matches to-date, the contest with Gordon featured the most attacks of the year in all directions. Seven other individuals reached double figures in digs -- Zimmerman (22), Hutzler (21), Amanda Pierce (20), and Alexandra Burnett (14) for the Fighting Scots, and Kelsey Bradshaw (24), Lylah Shumway (21), and Nowell (19) for the Nor'easters.

Bradshaw topped all players with four aces, and Shumway added three.

After 13 ties and nine lead-changes in the 1st set, UNE managed to counter four in-a-row by the Fighting Scots (20-21) with five unanswered to claim the session. Two of Bradshaw's aces helped seal it. In stark contrast, the 2nd was Gordon's from start-to-finish, leading by as many as nine (17-8, 20-11).

But it was back to tightly-contested action in the 3rd, with another 13 ties. A pair of kills by Gallaugher made it 16-11 in favor of the visitors, only to see 10 of the next 12 go for the hosts (21-18). Three smashes by Hanley capped a 4-0 spurt that flipped it back, and Hanley soon atruck again to knot the score at 23-all. As things progressed into bonus volleyball, the Nor'easters had set points after a solo block by Kailyn Reilly (25-24) and kill from Nowell (26-25), and survived set points against with kills by Miracle (26-27) and Hanley (27-28), but consecutive kills from Hutzler ultimately clinched the 3rd for the home team.

It was 5-4 UNE in the 4th before five straight by Gordon (9-5), including two of Hutzler's aces, and the margin shifted between three and five until the waning moments.

UNE returns home to face Bates College on Saturday (5:30 p.m.); the teams already met on September 6 in Lewiston, with the Nor'easters securing a hard-fought 3-2 win.