MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — 

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy volleyball team lost in straight sets to non-conference foes Wesleyan University (Conn.) on Saturday, falling by set scores of 14-25, 14-25, 23-25.

Wesleyan entered the match as the ranked 17th in the most recent American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) national poll. Senior captain Sarah Somer (Cary, N.C.) led the match with 15.0 points, Ava Ahokovi (Honolulu, Hawai'i) had 17 assists to pace both teams, and Laila Baameur (Bakersfield, Calif.) had a match-high 16 digs.

Coast Guard moves to 14-8 on the season, while the Cardinals improve to 18-1 and push their winning streak to ten in a row. Wesleyan will look to make it 11 on Friday, October 31st, with a victory over New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) foes Tufts University (18-5). The Cardinals hold an 8-0 record in NESCAC play, while the Jumbos will head into their final game of the season at 6-3 in the conference.

Somer opened the game with a kill, but Wesleyan responded with a 9-2 run to get out to a commanding lead in the first set. The Bears eventually trimmed it to a three-point deficit, trailing 8-11, following back-to-back kills by Somer and Amelia Matson (Mililani, Hawai'i), and then an ace by Ahokovi. The Cardinals pulled away again, eventually taking a 21-13 lead. A kill by Matson briefly slowed things down before Wesleyan rattled off three straight kills and served an ace to take a 1-0 lead.

The hosts showed no signs of slowing down in the second set, getting out to a 16-5 lead before a kill by Eloise Shirley (Rock Island, Ill.) and back-to-back swings by Somer made it 16-8. The teams traded the ensuing points, with an attack error on Wesleyan's part making it a 21-14 set, but the Cardinals once again scored four straight, this time on two kills, a block, and an ace, to go up 2-0 on the afternoon.

Set three started with the teams working to an 8-8 tie before Wesleyan put down six unanswered to broaden the gap. Coast Guard got back on track with three straight of their own on kills by Shirley and Somer and a Wesleyan attack error. The opposing sides stayed mostly in step from that point until the hosts turned an 18-14 lead into near-match point at 23-14.

But the Bears refused to go quietly, going on a seven-point run to get back within two. Corey Lemmer (San Francisco, Calif.) started it with a kill and was followed by an Ahokovi ace. Shirley and Matson forced an attack error by teaming up for a block before another ace by Ahokovi, and Somer brought it to 20 with back-to-back kills.

Matson put one more down to get her team to 21 before a service error brought the run to an end and gave the Cardinals the match point. Another kill by Matson, followed by a block from Shirley and Abby Schweitzer (Emmaus, Pa.), put the Bears in position to extend the set further, but a Siena Steines kill on the next point completed the straight-set sweep.

The Cardinals proved their national ranking by hitting a lethal .320 for the match, the second-highest rate by a Bears opponent this season, while their five attack errors were lowest committed by an opposing side on Coast Guard's calendar. The Bears, in comparison, hit .167 with 17 errors. Wesleyan also outperformed their guests on the defensive side of the net, out-blocking Coast Guard by a 7-2 margin.

Bears women's volleyball will look to bounce back on Tuesday, October 28th, when they host Worcester Polytechnic Institute (9-11) in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) action. The Bears will enter the match looking to get above .500 in the conference, currently sitting 4-4, while WPI is 2-6. The Bears were victors via sweep in last season's win in Worcester, which saw Matson put up a match-high 17.5 points with 17 kills and a block assist.