Volleyball nets CCC victory

 The number-one seeded Roger Williams University Women's Volleyball team won its third-straight Com­monwealth Coast Conference Championship against second seeded Endicott College with a three-to-one victory Saturday afternoon at the Campus Rec­reation Center.

RWU won their sets 25-23, 25-17, and 25-23, and have now defeated Endicott three consecutive CCC Champi­onship matches, including a 3-0 defeat in the 2010 CCC Championship. They extend their winning streak to 19 straight games, the second-longest winning streak in the New England region behind Southern Vermont, who has won 20 straight.

"It feels great," said first-year head coach Rob Mullowney.

"From the time I was inter­viewed [for the coaching posi­tion] the goal was to win anoth­er conference championship. But our work is not cut out yet. The girls from day one said they wanted to advance past the first round of the NCAA so we're getting to the part where we can work to accomplish that goal."

The Hawks were led by sopho­more Krystie Luczynski who had 20 kills and 4 digs, junior Kelsee Loche who had 33 digs, and CCC Player of the Year Marybeth Torpey, who had 13 kills and 24 digs in the victory. With the win, seniors Marilu Gonzalez-Yanez, Natasha Sop­chak, Torpey all received their 100th career victory for the Hawks.

Endicott put up a fight in the beginning of the match, win­ning the first set 28-26 in extra time. RWU put up a valiant ef­fort to tie the game at 25-25; however Endicott eventually pulled away and earned the first set win. Endicott junior Ash­ley Norley had a strong outing throughout the match, getting 28 digs for the Gulls.

The Hawks found themselves down early in the second set. However, a well-timed timeout call by Mullowney calmed the team down, and they rallied for 3 straight points. From there, the team found its groove and ended up winning the set by a nail-biting score of 25-23.

"The girls have shown a lot of heart all season long," Mullowney said. "We were hav­ing trouble in the first set, a little bit of a slow start, but we started getting at them in the second half of that game. We came out strong in that second set, regrouped, made a couple of small changes and I think that brought some more energy to the court."

From the second set the Lady Hawks settled in to their game and took the next two sets. De­spite small streaks by a talented Endicott team, the effort was not enough as they lost their third straight championship in as many years.

The Hawks finish the season a perfect 9-0 within the confer­ence, and 27-3 overall. Endicott finishes the season 15-15 over­all, and 7-2 within the Com­monwealth Coastal Confer­ence.