NEW LONDON, Conn. — 

The pin-attacking duo of Amelia Matson (Mililani, Hawai'i) and Sarah Somer (Cary, N.C.) combined for 36.0 points to lead the U.S. Coast Guard Academy women's volleyball team in handling New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) visitors Worcester Polytechnic Institute in straight sets by scores of 25-14, 25-22, 25-19.

Coast Guard improves to 15-8 on the season and 5-4 in NEWMAC play, while WPI moves to 10-13 overall and 2-7 against conference foes. Next up for the Engineers is a tri-match at Stevens Institute of Technology on Saturday, November 1st, in which they'll take on the Ducks (16-8) and the Eagles of Eastern University (18-5).

WPI had no answers on either side of the net for Matson and Somer. The sophomore paced the Bears' offense with 14.5 points on 14 kills and a block assist. Somer seemed just short of unstoppable at times, tallying 11 kills on 17 tries with no errors for a lethal .647 hit rate, also adding a block assist for her final total of 11.5 points.

Red hot feels like an underwhelming choice of words to describe an opening set performance by the Bears which saw them go for a .485 hit rate. Freshman standout Corey Lemmer (_) put down two kills in an 7-1 run that helped Coast Guard extend their lead to 15-7. A 7-2 run later on that got the Bears to a 23-11 lead was supplemented by pairs of kills from Abby Schweitzer (Emmaus, Pa.) and Sam Ventimiglia (Key West, Fla.). WPI was able to get three points back before the Bears took the set on a Ventimiglia kill and an Engineers attack error.

Matson, Somer, and Schweitzer ignited in the second set, with Matson putting down seven kills and Somer and Matson recording five each. The trio helped the Bears hit .400 to stay warm in set two, but WPI was able to stay-in-step for most of it by shaking off their first set nearly matching their hosts with a .361 hit rate in the second. The Engineers started the set by breaking a 3-3 tie with 4-1 run, supplemented by kills from Olivia Hutchinson and Bridget Spees. The teams traded the next couple of points before Mary Grace Delfino (Alpharetta, Ga.) followed up a Somer kill with an ace to make it a 9-8 game.

After some more back-and-forth, Scweitzer single-handedly tied it at 12 by following her own kill with another ace. The Bears took over, responding to a Hutchinson kill on the next point by going on a 7-2 run composed completely of kills. The Engineers responded with a run of their own, scoring six while allowing three to pout the game at 22-21. Back-to-back kills by Matson gave Coast Guard the set point, and one more point on a Spees kill was met with a third kill by the sophomore.

WPI came back down to Earth in the third set, hitting only .064, but were lucky to see a regressed .176 rate from the Bears. Coast Guard started hot again, taking an 8-2 lead featuring two kills by Somer and an ace by Laila Baameur (Bakersfield, Calif.). A four-point run for the Engineers, which saw two aces from Spees, cut the visiting deficit down to 11-14, and the teams stayed in step until back-to-back-to-back points for Coast Guard on two kills and an ace from Courtney Shire (Cape May, N.J.) put the score at 22-17. The opposing sides traded two more points each before Lemmer made the game final with a kill.

Schweitzer finished the night with 11.0 points and ten kills, while Lemmer got to 9.5 by adding a block assist to her nine-kill total. Ventimiglia also had 9.5 points, getting her's on seven kills, a solo block, and three block assists. Five of the junior middle's kills came in the nuclear first set for the Bears, an appropriate stat considering her team-high .358 hit rate on the season going into the game.

The freshman setting duo of Ava Ahokovi (Honolulu, Hawai'i) and Holly Davis (Sisters, Oreg.) were once again the engines powering a great Bears' offensive performance, recording respective assist numbers of 25 and 20. Ahokovi added 11 digs to her line for her third straight double-double, while Davis' total is the third-most of her young career.

Outdoing Ahokovi in digs was Baameur, who was effective yet-again in the different-colored jersey with 26 digs just a day after her fourth NEWMAC Defensive Athlete of the Week nod. The senior captain's total brings her to 443 on the season, officially tying her with Cassie Jansen '96 for the tenth most on the program's single-season boards.

Bears volleyball will play their final road match of the 2025 regular season on Tuesday, November 4th, when they travel to South Hadley for further NEWMAC adversity against Mount Holyoke College (13-11, 4-5). The Lyons fell in three last season in New London, and haven't defeated Coast Guard since 2000.