Box Score NORTHAMPTON, Mass.--

In a battle of the Bears and rematch of last year's NEWMAC Quarterfinal, and what could easily be a preview of a key playoff match this year, Coast Guard took on Smith College on the road in Northampton with SC getting the best of CGA. Smith College improves to 11-1 to start their season, they will next face Babson College on the road Saturday at 2pm. Coast Guard's seven match winning streak finally comes to an end, with the Bears now at 8-3. Coast Guard will next travel to MIT on Saturday for a tri match vs the Engineers and Kean University. Nationally ranked MIT currently sits at 9-1 after a sweep of WPI earlier today. Kean is 3-6 on the season after an exceptional 30-6 campaign last year.

Smith struck first, taking early first set leads of 4-1 and 10-5, forcing a CGA timeout, with half of Smith's first 10 points coming on Coast Guard errors. Smith came out of the timeout even stronger, scoring each of the next five points to take a 10 point advantage. Smith extended that lead to as many as 12 but three straight points with senior middle Eloise Shirley (Rock Island, Ill.) leading the way forced a Smith timeout with their lead now in the single digits. Smith would end up taking the first set by a score of 25-15 but strong flashes late by CGA set them up with some momentum going into the second. Sophomore and reigning Coast Guard Female Athlete of the Week Corey Lemmer (San Francisco, Cal.) was great in the first, swinging at a .625 clip with five kills, while senior captain Courtney Shire (Cape May, N.J.) had seven digs. Shire would end the day for the fifth time this year with 20+.

In the second, Coast Guard took early advantage of four Smith errors to take a 7-4 lead, with Lemmer and Abby Schweitzer (Emmaus, Pa.) recording kills and Holly Davis (Sisters, Ore.) getting an ace for the other Bear points. Exceptional defensive effort and strong play at the net by Alaina Corbin (Stafford, Va.) allowed CGA to extend their set two lead to 10-5. From there, Smith went on a roll. They scored seven of the next eight points to take a 12-11 lead, their first of the set. Coast Guard bounced back out of a timeout to re-take the lead on Corbin and Lemmer kills but the teams approached 20 with neither able to make a strong run in a back-and-forth affair. Coast Guard took their final timeout trailing 20-18. A Julia Gallinger (Garrison, N.Y.) kill got the Bears with in a point of tying the score before Smith rattled off three points in a row and gave themselves enough breathing room to survive with a 25-22 win. 

In the third, Smith scored the first three points but with libero Courtney Shire diving all over the court and Lemmer and Schweitzer recording kills, the Bears tied the score and garnered some momentum towards a potential comeback. Trailing 5-4, Shire had another improbable dig, putting the ball into the air where Abby Schweitzer narrowly missed diving into the scorer's table to set up Sam Ventimiglia (Key West, Fla.) for the kill and another tie. They struck gold again a few points later when Julia Gallinger, already laying on the floor after diving for the dig, somehow got her hand on the ball to punch it over the net and keep the rally alive before Schweitzer gave them the point on a kill. The exhilarating third set finally reached its first break with a coach Thomas timeout with Coast Guard trailing 11-8. Coast Guard kept hanging around into their final timeout at 15-10. Coast Guard fought til the end and kept threatening but ultimately went down by a final of 25-18.