Buccaneers Blanked by Top Seeded Owls

BUZZARDS BAY, Mass – Saturday evening presented a volleyball battle between the top and the bottom of the MASCAC as the eighth place Buccaneers welcomed the first place Westfield State Owls in to the Clean Harbors Center for the team's final regular season game of the season. Maritime was blanked by the Owls 3-0.

The Basics

Final: Owls 3, Buccaneer 0 (25-8, 25-8, 25-7)

Records: Mass Maritime 2-20 (0-7 MASCAC)

                Westfield State 12-16 (7-0 MASCAC)

For The Bucs

• Freshman Alexa Smith (Shippensburg, Penn) led the Buc attack with five kills.
• Senior Captain Marie Harrison (Weymouth, Mass) racked up four kills and 11 digs in the match.
• Senior Captain Christina Ruggeri (Bourne, Mass) led the Bucs with 12 digs.
• Senior Captain Michelle Sheehan (Attleboro, Mass) had a kill, three assists and two digs in on the day.
• Junior Madison Coughlin (Monroe, Conn) had a kill, a team-high eight assists and nine digs to her credit.

For The Owls

• Sophomore Shawna Crowley (Billerica, Mass) posted a match-high 12 kills, adding two aces and four digs.
• Senior Ally Rega (Chelmsford, Mass) had a match-high 35 assists for the Owls to go along with two kills, a match-high three aces and three digs. Junior Lynn Shattuck (Townsend, Mass) matched Rega's match-high three aces and had nine digs.
• Senior libero Lizzie Taylor (Medfield, Mass) posted a match-high 19 digs. She also had an assist and an ace.
• Senior Brianna Starkey (Rockland, Mass) added 11 kills for the Owls.
• Junior Jess Haradon (Mansfield, Mass) had 13 digs defensively.

How It Happened

Mass Maritime was unable to get anything going against Westfield as the Owls showed why they will enter the MASCAC playoffs next week as the number one seed in the conference. In three sets, the Owls posted hitting percentages of .324, .483, and .296.

In the first two sets they jumped out to early leads out killing the Bucs 16-2 in set one and 14-7 in set two. The Buccaneers best set was set tow which they posted a positive hitting percentage of .032 but were out played by Westfield who committed zero errors in 29 total attacks in the set.

Set three was the worst played set by both sides as the Owls recorded just five kills and the Bucs committed their most errors in any of the three sets with nine.

The loss in the match means the end of the season for the Buccaneers and the Owls will enjoy a first round bye in the MASCAC volleyball playoffs which begin next week.