Auburn, ME – CMCC Volleyball saw its season come to an end on Tuesday night, after a 3-2 loss to NHTI in the Yankee Small College Conference quarterfinals. The #5 seeded Lynx took the deciding set, 15-10 to pull the upset and advance to the YSCC Championship weekend.
YSCC All-Conference selection Isabella Higgins led Central Maine with 14 kills and three service aces. Autumn Peterson totaled ten kills while Natalie Roy, Jaki Bartoschek, and Errow Hinckley each had nine. Roy and Hinckley finished tied for the team lead in digs with 20 apiece, and All-Conference Honorable Mention setter Keliah Stith dealt out a team-high 29 assists.
There was no stopping NHTI's All-Conference outside hitter Emma Bernard though. The sophomore racked up 24 kills and 26.5 points to lead her side to the win.
The Mustangs and Lynx went to five sets for the third time this season, after both regular season meetings required the full distance to determine a winner. CMCC took the season-opener 3-2 on its home court before NHTI responded with a 3-2 in Concord, NH at the end of September. The rubber match between the two sides was just as close.
In set one, the hosts jumped out to a 4-0 lead and held the advantage through the early stages. Bernard gave her team its first lead with a kill to go up 12-11. The Mustangs stayed close through the end of the set, but ultimately lost it 25-22, with the visitors putting together 18 kills compared to their 10.
Central Maine comfortably took the second set, 25-14 thanks in large part to a .250 hitting percentage. Peterson, Higgins, and Roy each had a trifecta of kills, and the lead grew as large as 12 at 20-8 late on. However, momentum flipped again in the third with the Lynx responding with the same 13-3 kills-to-errors ratio as CMCC had in the previous set, to go up 2-1.
The fourth was a nailbiter from start to finish. Playing to keep their season alive, the Mustangs traded the lead back-and-forth six times. Consecutive aces by Higgins made it 17-16 to give Central Maine the lead for good, and a run of six straight points gave them the separation necessary to close out the set, ending 25-22 on a Bartoschek kill.
That sent things to a winner-takes-all fifth set. The momentum changed midway through the deciding race to 15 when NHTI took five straight points behind Brooke Hurlburt serving to lead 11-5. Down 14-6, the Mustangs made one final stand, staving off match points by winning four rallies in a row with their backs against the wall. But Bernard's fifth kill of the set sent the traveling fans into celebrations with a 15-10 win.
Central Maine's season ends with a 7-6 overall record under first-year head coach Hanna Webster. The Mustangs posted a 6-4 mark in conference play, their fourth straight campaign with a winning record.
