WEST HARTFORD, Mass. — 

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy volleyball took care of business as the away side at the University of Hartford on Saturday, defeating the Hawks in straight sets (25-15, 25-19, 25-13). 

Coast Guard improves to 8-2, while Hartford moves to 3-5. The Hawks' next match leads them to Dudley for a Conference of New England contest at Nichols College (4-9).

Leading the way for the Academy team was Abby Schweitzer (Emmaus, Pa.), who tallied each of her career-high 14.0 points on kills while adding eight digs to her line. Six of those big swings came in the first set, and the junior bounced back from a cold second set to put down five in the third. Also impactful were Dylan Elferdink (Hernando Beach, Fla.) and Sam Ventimiglia (Key West, Fla.), who contributed respective lines of 7.5 points on seven kills and a block assist and 6.0 points on five kills and two block assists. Elferdink made one error on 14 attempts, putting her at a nuclear .429 hit rate.

The Bears outmatched Hartford in hitting for the entire match, finishing with a .313 hit percentage to dwarf the .066 their hosts put up. Both teams were similar in errors and total attempts, with 11 flubs on 96 tries for Coast Guard and 15 on 91 for Hartford, but conversion proved to be the deciding factor. The Hawks recorded 21 kills as a team, while the Bears nearly doubled them with 41 of their own. 38 of those spikes came from helpers, of which 30 were credited to a combined effort between freshman duo Ava Ahokovi (Honolulu, Hawai'i) and Holly Davis (Sisters, Oreg.); Ahokovi had 17 while Davis had 13.

Leading the way on the floor was Courtney Shire(Cape May, N.J.) with nine digs, who made up the bulk of the of the team's total of 34 alongside Schweitzer and a pair of fives from Ahokovi and Davis. The quartet combined for 27 digs to offset the absence of team captain and usual face at the libero spot Laila Baameur (Bakersfield, Calif.). Shire also had three aces on the day, getting one in the first set and two in the third, and was joined in that stat by Julia Gallinger(Garrison, N.Y.), who recorded points on back-to-back serves in the first.

Hartford was the better team on the defensive side of the net, out-blocking the Bears by a 6-2 margin. Four of those came from the arms and hands of Jenna Murphy alone, who led the Hawks with 6.0 points alongside twin sister Jordan Murphy; the latter Murphy got all of her points via kills.

Volleyball plays their next game on Tuesday, September 23rd, hosting Smith College (9-5) for a 6 p.m. match. Last year's surprise NEWMAC champions are proving their conference tournament win was no fluke by receiving votes in the AVCA's weekly national poll. The Bears fell to the team formerly called the Pioneers last season, 1-3 (19-25, 17-25, 27-25, 25-20), in a game that saw Amelia Matson (Mililani, Hawai'i) tally 15.0 points on 15 kills.