NEWTON, Mass. -- After earning five wins in their final seven regular-season matches, the Lasell College women's volleyball team opens Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) play with a quarterfinal contest against Simmons College on Tuesday night. First serve at Moore Gymnasium in Boston is set for 7:00 p.m.
The Lasers enter tournament play after playing four matches in five days, beating Bridgewater State in a five-set home finale last Tuesday, falling to WPI in straight sets two nights later, and splitting a final tri-match at Albertus Magnus with Johnson and Wales.
Lasell swept the host Falcons in the second of Saturday's matches to complete the regular season with a 12-18 record, including a 7-5 mark away from home. Lasell, St. Joseph's (Maine) and Emmanuel all posted 6-5 conference records, but the Lasers came out on top of the tiebreaker to earn the No. 5 seed.
Simmons finished the regular season with an 11-11 record and 8-3 mark in conference play. The Sharks earned nine of their 11 victories in straight sets this year, downing Lasell in that fashion when the teams met on Oct. 5.
Sophomore Olivia Addington (Orange, Calif.) paced the Lasers' offense all season long, ranking third in the GNAC with 342 kills and 1,197 total attacks. Addington finished with double-digit kills 18 times this season and was the only player with more than 20 in the Lasers' final home match of the season against Bridgewater State in which they rallied for the victory by taking the second, third and fifth sets.
Addington leads the Lasers and sits just outside the conference's top-20 with a .164 hitting percentage, while classmate Caitlyn Garcia (Moreno Valley, Calif.) has led the way defensively, posting the third-most digs (552) and digs per set (5.31) in the GNAC. Junior Taylor Tiezzi (Meriden, Conn.) is also among conference leaders, sitting fifth with 8.20 assists per set.
Lasell scored five of the final six points to sweep Albertus in its last outing, posting 25-21, 25-20 and 25-23 set wins. The Lasers posted three of their final five victories by 3-0 scores. Freshman Amanda DiLeonardo (West Haven, Conn.) was the top offensive Laser against the Falcons, putting down 12 kills.
The Sharks did not drop a set in downing Suffolk and St. Joseph's (Conn.) in a Saturday tri-match to end the regular season. Freshman Morgan Weeg (Goodyear, Ariz.) posted 14 kills and was not charged with an attack error against Suffolk, helping Simmons to a .474 team hitting percentage. Weeg's ranks third in the GNAC with exactly four kills per set, and also leads Simmons with 13 double-doubles on the season.
Defending GNAC champion Johnson & Wales is the tournament's No. 1 seed after losing just one set in a 30-0 regular season. If the Lasers pulled off a victory at Simmons, they would face the winner of the JWU-Suffolk match in a semifinal contest on Thursday, November 3. The championship match is set for Saturday, November 5.
