Women's Volleyball Wins Back-To-Back NEAC Tilts

AURORA, N.Y. – The Wells College women's volleyball team defeated Bryn Athyn College by a 3-0 margin before battling the Nittany Lions of Penn St.-Berks to a 3-2 victory on Sunday at the Frances Tarlton Farenthold Athletic Wing. The Express improve to 8-6 overall on the year and carry a 3-1 record within the North Eastern Athletic Conference exiting the league's crossover weekend. Wells has played six matches at home in 2014, winning five-of-six tilts in Aurora.

Wells posted a 3-0 victory over Bryn Athyn via set scores of 25-19, 25-9 and 25-14 before defeating Penn St.-Berks in five sets (21-25, 25-23, 22-25, 25-19, 15-11). On the day, the Wells offense hammered home 94 kills and committed only 51 errors on 257 total swings. Defensively, Wells averaged 14.38 digs per set and also added 11 total blocks across the two league matches.

Versus Bryn Athyn, Wells was led by eight kills from junior Vashti Nettles (Long Beach, Calif.). Freshman Anuhea Leite-Ah Yo (Hilo, Hawaii) added seven kills of her own, committing only one error on nine total attacks, while adding eight service aces. Senior Taryn Heath (Truxton, N.Y.) assisted 26 of her team's 35 kills (the most by a setter in a three-set match in team history) while freshman Olyvia Brazier (Stony Brook, N.Y.) registered 10 digs defensively to lead her team in that statistic.

Against Penn St.-Berks, Nettles posted 23 kills on 36 total attacks alongside only four errors to set the program record for hitting percentage (.528) in one match. Her 23 kills tied the single-match record held by sophomore Meredith Kadjeski (Mechanicsburg, Pa.), originally set on Sept. 7, 2013 against Utica. Junior Zakarra Butts (Cortland, N.Y.) hammered home six service aces, setting the five-set single-match record for Wells.

In the fourth set alone, Nettles hammered home seven kills on only seven swings. Leite-Ah Yo added 11 kills for her team, placing second on the squad in that category. Heath and freshman Eliza Schwab (Hartland, N.Y.) posted 27 and 23 assists, respectively, while five players tallied double-digit dig totals. The Express were led by Leite-Ah Yo and her 14 digs.

Wells returns to action Saturday, Sept. 27 as they face-off against Pratt and Gwynedd Mercy on the latter's campus beginning at high noon.