BUZZARDS BAY, Mass – The Buccaneers welcomed Dean College to the Clean Harbors Center on Tuesday evening for a non-conference matchup. Looking for their first win of the season the Bucs battled hard against a gritty Bulldogs squad and won the match 3-0.

The Basics

Final: Maritime 3, Dean 0 (25-21, 27-25, 27-25)

Records Maritime 1-9 (0-1 MASCAC)

                Dean 1-6 (0-0 GNAC)

For The Bucs

• Captain Tegan Murray (Newbury, MA) led the match with a career-high 13 kills. Her previous high was nine in a match against Dean College in 2018. Alexa Smith (Shippensburg, PA) and Marlo Sim (Groton, CT) each had six kills. The six kills for Smith tied her career high, set back in 2019 against Anna Maria.
• Captain Bianca Andronic (Somerset, MA) posted a match-high 15 assists, another career-high for a Buccaneer in the match. Her previous high of 14 came in a win over Lesley in 2019. Audrey Manning (Hanover, MA) had eight assists in the match.
• Ameena Freeman (Columbus, OH) led the Bucs with three service aces and defensively she led the team with 21 digs. Sim added a career-high 19 digs, Diana Andronic (Somerset, MA) had a career-high 17 digs and Bianca Andronic had 14 digs in the win.
• The Buccaneers posted a .038 hitting percentage in the match with a match-high .100 hitting percentage in the first game.

For The Bulldogs

• Emily Larouche led the 'Dogs with six kills while Sari Albury added four.
• Annabella Driscoll and Lena Muraski led Dean with eight assists each.
• Janai Price served up a match-high four aces with Albury adding three of her own.
• Amanda Payne dug out a match-high 28 balls, Jordan Cournoyer-Herivaux had 11 digs in the loss.
• Albury had the lone block in the match for either team.
• Dean posted a -.058 hitting percentage in the match with -.019 being their best in the second set.

How It Happened

The energy in the Clean Harbors Center was high and positive from the start. The Buccaneers opened the match with a Murray kill. While the Bulldogs went on a small run following the 1-0 Bucs lead, Maritime never led Dean out of their sight. Down 5-2 early on, the Bucs battled back and took an 8-7 lead. There were two ties that followed but the Bucs never allowed the Bulldogs to take another lead. As the set progressed the Buccaneer lead grew and diminished. Dean kept tying the score. Then, at the 17-17 score mark, the Bucs took hold of the game, winning eight of the next 12 points to seal the deal in the first game, 25-21, the second set win of the season for Maritime.

Sets two and three offered just as much if not more excitement than the first set. In the second game, Dean went out to a 2-0 lead to begin things. Maritime took the reins from there and went on a 9-2 run, taking a 9-4 lead early. Dean didn't go away easily, rattling off four straight to tie the game at 10s. Looking to tie the match up at a set apiece, the Bulldogs went on to score 10 of the next 15 points, including a five-point run. Leading by four, 17-13, the Bucs had their work cut out for them and cut out the work they did. With a few points scattered in for Dean, the Bucs went on to tie the game at 20-20 and retake the lead, 21-20. Neither team wanted to lose the second set so the teams traded points up to 25-24. Needing to win by two, Maritime shut down the Dean advantage and tied the game at 25-25. With a kill by Sim and a Dean error, the Bucs scored the next two points to take the 27-25 game two win, giving them a 2-0 lead in the match.

Set three, similar to the second game, was action packed. The teams went back and forth at the start. Dean led by one, 4-3, and the Bucs took over, scoring five in a row to take an 8-4 lead. Back and forth the teams went once again, a four-point run by the Bucs, a 6-1 run from the Bulldogs, the teams were knotted at 14-14. As the game progressed the fatigue began to set in for both teams but the adrenaline took over. They ran the score to 20-20, the Bucs couldn't hold a lead. Dean went up by two, 23-21, then it went to 24-22. The Bulldogs were a point from sending the match to a fourth set. Then, the Buccaneers, with maybe the shortest front line you may ever see in a volleyball match, comprising of 5'6" Freeman, 5'3" Manning and 5'1" Alaina Liddell (Weymouth, MA), battled hard to bring the score to 24-24. They fell behind again, 25-24. On a service error by Dean the game tied against at 25s. The Bucs kept the ball in play on the next two rallies and the ball didn't lie as Maritime earned the final two points of the set to win, 27-25, and take the match, 3-0, over Dean.

What's Next

The Buccaneers travel to North Adams, MA on Saturday for a tri-match at MCLA. They'll take on MCLA in MASCAC play at 12pm and then take on Trinity at 2pm in non-conference play. Live stats and stream can be found at mmabucs.com.