Women's Volleyball Suffers Close Loss in Five Set Affair

Providence, R.I. (10/18/12) – The Lasell College women's volleyball team fell in a tightly contested five set match at Johnson & Wales University, 3-2 (25-16, 25-21, 23-25, 24-26, 15-13) in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference contest at the Wildcat Center on Tuesday evening. With the victory Johnson & Wales improves to 10-17 overall and 5-3 in the GNAC while Lasell falls to 6-20 on the year and 5-5 in league play.

Freshman Sharisse Scott Rawlins (Brockton, Mass.) paced Lasell with 15 kills while freshman Alyssa Nahigian (Coventry, R.I.) notched 24 set assists and seven digs in the setback for the Lasers.

Haack led the way for Johnson & Wales, recording 20 kills, six digs and three blocks while junior Kasey Higgins (Wallingford, Conn.) registered 24 set assists and four digs in the victory. Sophomore Alyssa Drapeau (Biddeford, Maine) recorded a double-double with 18 set assists and 11 digs while adding eight blocks and five kills for the Wildcats.

JWU opened the match with a 25-16 win in the first set and extended their lead to 2-0 after a 25-21 victory in the second set.  Lasell climbed back into the contest with a 25-23 win in set three and the visiting Lasers then knotted the game at 2-2 with a 26-24 victory in set four to force a deciding fifth set of the match.  In that deciding set, Johnson & Wales raced out to a 7-4 lead before Lasell reeled off seven straight points for the 11-7 advantage.  The Wildcats responded, however and tied the game at 12-12 when they capitalized on a Lasell attacking error.  The Wildcats then took match the when a kill by senior Karlie Haack (Selkirk, N.Y.) gave the squad the 15-12 win in the set to propel the squad to a 3-2 victory.

The Wildcats will return to action on Saturday, October 20^th when they travel to Suffolk for a GNAC contest, starting at 1:00 p.m. Lasell will look to rebound when they host WPI Thursday October 18th at 7pm.