Volleyball Drops Season Finale to AIC, 3-1

River Hawks drop regular season finale to AIC, 3-1, Coscia reaches 1,300 kills

LOWELL, MA (NOV. 6, 2010) – UMass Lowell volleyball fell in its regular season finale to American International, 3-1, on Saturday afternoon. The River Hawks honored its three seniors who were playing the final home match of their careers: Sarah Coscia (Pittsfield, Mass.), Jillian Hadder (Yucaipa, Calif.) and Vicky Wong (Tewksbury, Mass.).

The late season loss drops UMass Lowell’s record to 15-11 overall and 9-6 in Northeast-10 action. The Yellow Jackets improve to 20-11 on the campaign and 11-4 in conference play.

AIC jumped out early, grabbing a 17-25 win in the first set. Coscia scored four kills, but the River Hawks committed eight errors to shoot themselves in the foot.

UMass Lowell rebounded to a fast start in the second frame, grabbing an early 9-1 lead on its way to a 25-23 win. Wong and Hadder stole the spotlight with five kills each. Setting the pair up, Kristina Wiltjer (San Diego, Calif.) tallied 12 assists and five digs.

Play swayed back into the Yellow Jackets’ favor as AIC took a 22-25 win in set three. Coscia and Wong registered five more kills each and Wiltjer added 16 assists.

Despite a spirited effort from UMass Lowell, the Yellow Jackets took the final set, 18-25. The River Hawks managed just five kills in a choppy fourth set.

For the match, Wong led the way with a team-high 14 kills and five assists. Coscia was close behind with 11 kills, five digs and four blocks. Coscia’s first kill of the match was the 1,300th of her career.
Wiltjer doled out 38 assists and 13 digs to quarterback the UMass Lowell offense. In addition to Wiltjer, two other River Hawks reached double-digit digs as Carolyn Eddy (Dracut, Mass.) and Hadder had 15 and 14, respectively.

With the regular season over, UMass Lowell awaits to rest of the NE-10 to finish play to determine seeding for the conference tournament, which starts Tuesday.

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