Volleyball Nearly Pulls Off Upset at Newbury

BROOKLINE, Mass. – The third-seed Newbury College women's volleyball team defeated sixth-seeded Mitchell College, 3-2, in the first round of the 2013 New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Championship on Tuesday night.

Courtney Banks led the Nighthawks to the come-from-behind victory, hitting .310 on the night while tallying a match-high 20 kills on 42 attempts. Sophomore Amanda Garcia also tallied 20 kills to pace the Mariners (9-13 overall), who were eliminated from the tournament and saw their season come to an end.

Mitchell came out of the gate strong, jumping out to the quick 1-0 advantage. Garcia was red-hot from the floor in the first set, registering a .455 attack percentage with six kills and a block assist to guide the Mariners to the 25-18 set victory.

Down by one game, the Nighthawks came back to even up the match with a tight 25-23 victory in set two. Banks led the way by hitting a remarkable .583 from the floor with a set-high seven kills while McKenzie Kish paced the Newbury offense with 11 assists.

Mitchell freshman Amanda Rowan was the difference in the third set for the Mariners. She hit .364 with five kills in a decisive 25-16 victory that put Mitchell one set away from the upset and a spot in the semifinals.

At the start of the fourth set, momentum appeared to favor the Nighthawks as they jumped out to an early 13-9 lead, but the Mariners responded with a 7-0 run to go in front 15-13. The lead then changed hands six times before Newbury's Kataya Sykes sealed a grinding, back-and-forth 27-25 win with a kill to knot the match at two sets apiece.

Late in the fifth set, Mitchell led by two at 11-9 and looked as if it was going to move on. But the Nighthawks responded with a 6-0 run to close out the match, a stretch that included three kills from Banks.

Senior Gloria Charles and Rowan each finished with double digit kills, the former with 15 and the latter with 10. Charles also led the Mariners with 18 digs in the final match of her career while Garcia tied a season high with five block assists. Sophomore Nicole Caminiti distributed 35 assists to lead the Mitchell offense.

Newbury (14-15 overall) moves on to the NECC Championship semifinals where it will face second-seeded Regis College on Friday, November 1 at 8 p.m. in Bennington, Vt.