Staff Writer
On senior night, the No. 20 Springfield College women’s volleyball team (25-1, 6-1) added another win to the win column with a dominating performance over tough, NEWMAC opponent WPI (16-7,4-3), 3-0 in Blake Arena on Tuesday night.
Springfield’s senior Lauren Torvi posted seven kills and sophomore Tessa Smolinski contributed 10 kills to give the Pride the win when it was all said and done. WPI’s junior Elyssa Dorenfield recorded eight kills in the loss.
“I think we had a lot of fun, we played really well together, and we were loud tonight,” Torvi said.
Springfield took a commanding 2-0 lead in the match and never looked back. The team looked ready to go right from the get-go, winning game one 25-16. The Pride took game two 25-12 and game three
“I thought we did a really good job, we passed the ball really well. I thought we were aggressive, we really dictated points,” coach Moira Long said. “It started a little slow in the beginning, but then we pushed the tempo and that really worked to our advantage.”
A game two in volleyball can make or break you, and tonight the Pride continued their season trend of dominant game two performances by controlling WPI 25-12 with a combination of great passing and contributions from all players on the floor.
To answer back, the Engineers needed to tighten up the screws and get some kind of flow going.
In game three they tied it up at 2-2 early in the game, starting off on the right note but Springfield came back firing on all lines to seal the victory.
The Springfield College women’s volleyball team will play five road games in the upcoming remaining schedule. Their next opponent will be Bowdoin College (18-1, 8-0) on Friday at 7 p.m. at Smith College.
“We set our goals, this weekend we have a huge tournament, and we play at the Hall of Fame,” said Long. “We play against No. 3 Bowdoin, No. 5 Husson, and Middlebury who is No. 7 in the region.”
“Right now our focus is on Bowdoin. It is going to be a big challenge, and that type of match will get us ready down the road.”
Mark Loiselle may be reached at mloiselle@springfieldcollege.edu