Buccaneers Beaten by Bears in Final Road Conference Game of the Season

BRIDGEWATER, Mass – Tuesday evening, the Buccaneers traveled to Bridgewater to take on the Bears in their final road conference game of the season. Still looking for their first conference win of the year, the Bucs fell in straight set.

The Basics

Final: Bears 3, Buccaneers 0 (25-3, 25-23, 25-15)

Records: Mass Maritime 2-17 (0-6 MASCAC)

                Bridgewater State 9-12 (4-2 MASCAC)

For The Bucs

• Senior Captain Michelle Sheehan (Attleboro, Mass) led the team with five kills. She added two assists and two digs to her score line.
• Junior Madison Coughlin (Monroe, Conn) led the team with 12 assists. Defensively she recorded four digs.
• Senior Captain Christina Ruggeri (Bourne, Mass) racked up a match-high 23 digs. She also had the only service ace of the match for the Bucs.
• Senior Captain Marie Harrison (Weymouth, Mass) tallied four kills and seven digs on the evening.

For The Bears

• Abigail Gardner led the match with 12 kills on a match-high 33 total attacks. Gardner had two service aces and 12 digs as well
• Casey Holmes assisted on a match-high 26 plays while also matching Gardner's dig total with 12. Holmes also led all players with six service aces.
• Gabryella Serrano tallied the most digs for the Bears with 15. She also had three kills and two service aces.
• Becca Whalen and Shannon Grindle each recorded a solo block, the only two by either team.

How It Happened

Bridgewater ran out to a 9-0 advantage to begin the first set. Maritime scored their first of three points in the game to make it 9-1. The Bears proceeded to go on a 6-0 run before committing an attack error to give the Bucs their second point. The hosts then went on to score 10 of the next 11 points to win the set by a commanding 25-3 score.

Set two began with a 4-0 Bear run, including two Holmes service aces. Maritime went on to score four of the next six to bring the deficit to two, 6-4. Gardner racked up five kills in the next six points, all won by Bridgewater, opening their lead back up to seven. Sheehan and company brought the game back within three points eventually tying the score at 15-15 after a 4-0 Buccaneer run. Maritime would eventually take their only lead of the night on multiple unforced Bear errors and a Ruggeri service ace, 18-16. The teams went back and forth in the late going, battling through multiple ties. With the score tied at 23-23 Bridgewater scored the next two points to shut down a strong Buccaneers comeback effort, winning 25-23.

Much like the first two sets, Bridgewater opened up an early lead, 3-0, and scored nine of the first 11 points of the set. Down 9-2, the Bucs went on a 4-1 run to pull within four points. The Bucs would get no closer as the hosts opened their lead up to as many as six midway through the game. Down 20-10 late, Maritime made a push by scoring three unanswered. Leading by seven, 20-13, the Bears went on a 5-2 scoring streak to win the final game, 25-15, and the match, 3-0.

Up Next

The Buccaneers are at Dean College on Saturday for their final road game of the season. Match time is 2pm. It will be the second match-up of the season between the two teams, Dean having won the first in five sets, 3-2, in Buzzards Bay.