Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 GORHAM, Maine – Freshman Kristina Rubico (Chelmsford, Mass.) swung for 36 kills with a .309 kill percentage over two matches to lead the University of Southern Maine Huskies to a pair of wins defeating the UMaine Machias Clippers 3-1 (25-12, 25-10, 23-25 and 25-6) and the Castleton State Spartans 3-1 (25-18, 25-12, 26-28, 25-19) in a tri-match at Hill Gymnasium in Gorham, Maine Sunday afternoon.
With the pair of wins, Southern Maine extends its win streak to five matches and improves its record to 6-1 overall. It is the first time since the 2003 season that the Huskies have won five matches consecutively and matches their best start since the 2003 season when USM started 6-1, finishing the season 19-12. Castleton State is 2-2 defeating UMaine Machias 3-0 (25-22, 25-7, 25-18), while UMaine Machias stands at 2-3 suffering losses to both USM and Castleton State.
Rubico added six aces and 1 digs over the two wins. Sophomore Jessica Garrett (Waterboro, Maine/Palo Verde (NV)) added 16 kills over two matches while classmate Renee Trottier (Biddeford, Maine) contributed 15 kills and 10 digs. Sophomore Kelsey Abramson (Deerfield, Mass./Frontier Regional) turned in a strong performance with 14 kills, 10 aces and eight digs.
Against Castleton, Southern Maine ran out to a 2-0 lead before the Spartans rallied for a closely fought 28-26 win in the third set forcing a fourth. Rubico and Trottier paced the Huskies in the fourth set combining for 11 kills. Rubico finished with a match-high 21 kills against Castleton, which is the fourth highest total in a four-game match in Huskies' volleyball history. It is also the most kills in a four-game match for a USM volleyball player since the 2005 season. Freshman setter Megan Nilson (Granby, Conn.) continued her strong play setting for 43 assists, just four off of the single-match (four-game) record for assists of 47 set in 2002.
In the opener against UMaine Machias, Rubico had a match-high 15 kills, while Nilson had 29 assists. Sophomore Demi Ruder (Clifton, Colo./Central) had 19 digs in the win over Machias.
Southern Maine returns to action on the road at Husson on Tuesday (7:00 p.m.). UMaine Machias hosts Unity on Wednesday (7:00 p.m.) and Castleton State travels to Smith College on Saturday (12:00 p.m.) for matches against Lasell and Western New England.
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