WORCESTER, Mass. -- Sophomore Shannon Shaw led a balanced attack from the Bears in a 3-1 (25-16, 19-25, 25-10, 25-15) win at New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) opponent WPI on Tuesday evening. With the win, the Bears improve to 18-6 (5-4 NEWMAC), and the Engineers fall to 14-9 (3-6 NEWMAC).

Shaw had a match-high 12 kills for the Bears. She was followed by Sarah Somer with eight, Noelle Tursky with six, and Carlee Lingle and Elizabeth Atkinson with four each. Tursky added 18 assists, with Maeve Duffin contributing nine and Kaela France eight. Allie Wildsmith added three aces; Tursky had two. The Bears had a balanced defense as well, with France leading Coast Guard with 18 digs. Tursky followed with 15 digs, and Carmen Zipf added eight. Duffin had five digs, while Vickie Mancine, Laila Baameur, and Wildsmith each added four. Wildsmith also added four blocks, while Atkinson and Lingle had three apiece.

The Bears started out set one with a big block from Atkinson and Lingle. France then served three in a row, and the Bears were out to a 5-2 lead. The Bears' rotation with Wildsmith serving forced a WPI timeout, but Wildsmith answered immediately with an ace. WPI brought the score within three at 13-10, but the Bears came back with Baameur's serve, a kill by Shaw, and two by France for the 16-11 lead. It was all Coast Guard from there, with great play all-around from the Bears for the 25-16 win in set one.

Shaw started set two with back to back kills before the Engineers even got on the board. However, WPI battled back to tie the score at 9-9. On Duffin's serve, the Bears got a great block from Somer and Wildsmith, giving them the 14-11 lead. Zipf would record an ace and force a WPI timeout with the Bears up 16-12. Atkinson had a kill to give the Bears the lead at 19-15, but it would be the last point they scored in the set. Even two Bears' timeouts couldn't contain the Engineers, as they scored ten straight points to win the set, 25-19.
Set three was all Coast Guard, as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead, helped by a Tursky ace and a Shaw kill. Baameur then served six straight, and a kill by Shaw and two apiece by Atkinson and Somer put the Bears up 10-2. The Engineers managed to steal a point here and there, but it was the Bears in command, again, on Baameur's serve. She rattled off four more, putting the Bears up, 22-8. Back-to-back kills by Shaw gave the Bears the win, 25-10.

Set four started out with the Bears earning another 4-0 lead on a kill by Shaw and two by Somer. WPI got the score within two at 8-6, but Coast Guard capitalized on two Engineers' errors and a Tursky kill to go up 11-6. WPI got back-to-back kills of their own by Olivia Deckers to bring the score to 11-8. The scoring went back and forth, with WPI coming as close as three again at 16-13. However, the Bears would use a serving run from Wildsmith to push to a 23-14 lead. Tursky would end the set with an ace, giving the Bears the win, 25-15.

The Bears are back in action on Saturday, October 29 as they travel to MIT for their final regular season match at 12 PM.