Box Score SOUTH HADLEY, Mass.--Mount Holyoke College battled back for a third set victory, but Smith College held on in the final frame for a 3-1 victory (25-20, 25-21, 25-27, 25-19) in NEWMAC volleyball action on Tuesday at the Mildred S. Howard Gymnasium.  Smith ends a nine game losing skid and moves to 7-17 overall and 3-5 in conference action. The Lyons slip to 3-19 with an 0-8 record in the NEWMAC.

The win keeps Smith in the race for the final NEWMAC tournament berth.  A win over Wellesley on Saturday, combined with a Babson loss to Clark on the same day, would give Smith the sixth seed in the NEWMAC tournament, set to begin on October 30.

Down 2-0 in sets, Mount Holyoke saw several players step-up to give the Lyons a 27-25 victory and force a fourth set. Junior Martina Kneifel, who made several key kills throughout the match, laid down several important ones in the third frame.

Smith had the momentum to open the third set and led by a 22-18 margin late in the stanza, but Mount Holyoke continued to fight and pulled it to 23-21 on a kill by sophomore Galina Thieme. The Pioneers gained the point back, but back-to-back errors on Smith proved costly, tying the set at 24-all.

First year Emma Sweeting fired a powerful shot down the middle for the kill and the Lyons first lead, but Pioneers junior Rosa Drummond (Rye, N.H./Portsmouth) laid down a kill of her own to tie it back up at 25-25.

Sweeting came up big on the next play with a kill to the left side and Mount Holyoke took the set victory on a service ace by junior Kristina Weld.

The Pioneers stole the momentum back to open the fourth set, but the Lyons continued to push their way back into the frame. A number of impressive kills by senior Blair Bell (Upper Montclair, N.J./Montclair Kimberly) helped give Smith the 22-19 advantage and the Pioneers sealed it on consecutive errors by the Lyons.

For Mount Holyoke, Sweeting finished with 16 kills and 13 digs, while Kneifel added 12 kills and 14 digs. Sophomore Stephany Yang had 28 assists and 10 digs in the match, while classmate Kaleen Iwema recorded 35 digs.

Mount Holyoke, which celebrated and recognized senior captain Kathryn Brummer prior to tonight's match, is back on the court on Saturday. The Lyons host NEWMAC-rival MIT at 1pm in the regular season finale for both teams. Smith is right back in action on Wednesday, hosting Amherst at 7 pm before concluding its regular season schedule against league-foe Wellesley at home at 3 pm.

(Release courtesy Mount Holyoke Sports Information)

Note: An earlier version of this story mistakenly reported that Smith was eliminated from the NEWMAC tournament.  Apologies for the error.