BY TIM NOONAN // SEPT. 21, 2016 //

Tuesday evening the Curry College Colonels women’s volleyball team hosted the Western New England Golden Bears for a Commonwealth Coast Conference matchup and lost in four sets.

The game started at 6 p.m. and the Colonels struck first off of a kill by senior Alyssa Keeney. Neither team was able to get an edge as the biggest lead was only three points.

Roughly midway through the first set, the Golden Bears led the Colonels 15-13, but Curry managed to score five of the next eight points to knot the score at 18. Both clubs traded points to wind down the set, ending with the Colonels winning 25-22.

The second set started differently, however, as the Golden Bears struck first and held a 3-0 advantage over Curry. It was short-lived, though, and the Colonels tallied seven out of eight set points to take a 7-4 lead. Curry held off WNE and forced a timeout with a 9-8 lead. After that, the teams fought to another tie at 14 only for the Golden Bears to eventually pull away 25-22.

The Colonels once again struck first in the third set and WNE traded points back and forth to deadlock the score at 13. WNE started to gain momentum on their way to gaining a 21-15 advantage, threatening to take the 3^rd set. From that point on, Curry would only score one more point and the set finished 25-16.

The fourth and final set saw the Colonels overpowered early, trailing 7-2. The Golden Bears never looked back, building their lead up ten points to a 20-10 score. Curry responded from the brink to score seven consecutive points in front of their home crowd to come to within three points. However, WNE would hold off the late surge and finish the set 25-19.

At the end of the night, sophomore Grace Stafford finished with nine kills and 14 digs, while junior Courtney Carroll led the team with 18 digs. Senior Alyssa Keeney racked up 14 assists and classmate Nicole Grambley recorded eight kills.

The Colonels will try to bounce back tonight at 6 p.m. against another CCC opponent in Gordon College, at the Katz Gymnasium.