WORCESTER -- Visiting Smith grabbed a tight 3-1 victory over the WPI volleyball team in Tuesday night NEWMAC action at Harrington Auditorium. Smith improves to 13-5 overall, 3-3 in NEWMAC play, while the Engineers fall to 10-5, 2-5 NEWMAC.
 
WPI and Smith split the first two sets, both going extra points to start the match at 1-1. The third set was again decided by the slimmest of margins (25-23) before Smith won the third frame convincingly, 25-15, to wrap up the victory.
 
WPI's Amanda Wetmore (Hudson, NH) struck for a career-best 24 kills, adding seven digs in the loss. Kaleigh Hess (Berea, NY) finished her night with 10 kills, hitting .500, while Natalia Wierzbicki (Wareham, MA) had nine kills on a .533 attack. Catherine Reynolds (Concord, NH) tallied a double-double of 43 assists and 18 digs, with Jia Yazon rounding out the box score with a 14-dig night.
 
The Pioneers were paced by a 10-kill, 13-dig performance from Olivia Smith (Mill Valley, Calif./Tamalpais), while Abby Sweeney also tallied 10 kills on the night. Ava Zollinger (Orlando, Fla./Lake Highland Prep) added eight kills and Sarah Dankovich (El Paso, Tex./Coronado) picked up seven kills with 12 digs. Nathalie Pak (Lexington, Mass./Lexington) tallied 23 assists with nine digs, while Lilly Mearsheimer (Portland, Ore./Cleveland) had 15 assists.
 
Smith grabbed the first frame, hitting .259, inching out a 26-24 win. Ten ties in the early action had the set tied at 9-9 before the Engineers used a 6-3 run to go up 15-12. Smith fired back with a 7-1 surge to take a 17-16 lead. Four more ties followed until Smith went up 23-20, but WPI answered with a 3-0 run to tie things at 23-23 on a block from Reynolds and Wierzbicki. Smith had one last surge, however, as the Pioneers closed out the set by winning three of the final four points to go up, 1-0.
 
Smith jumped out to a 7-3 lead early in the second set, with the advantage growing to six at 14-8. Three straight WPI points followed, including a pair of aces from Reynolds, but Smith pushed the lead back to six at 19-13 on a Sweeney kill. Trailing 23-19, WPI scored five straight, coming all the way back to tie the set at 24-24 on a swing from Wetmore. The teams traded sideouts until WPI sealed the win by forcing back-to-back Pioneer attack errors, as the Engineers tied the match with a 29-27 win.
 
WPI struck first in the third set, going up 3-1, before a 5-0 surge from Smith put the visitors on top, 6-3. The Engineers cut the lead to 6-5, but Smith countered with an 8-3 surge to open their largest lead of the frame at 14-8. After WPI got the lead down to four, the Pioneers took control once again, as a 5-1 run put them up 19-11. The Engineers slowly chipped away, as Wetmore and Wierzbicki each picked up a pair of kills in an 11-4 WPI run that cut the lead to 23-22. Smith, however, got the final surge it needed, closing out the 25-23 win on a kill from Olivia Smith (Mill Valley, Calif./Tamalpais).
 
Smith wrapped up the match victory with a solid hitting performance in the final frame, taking it 25-15. Four straight Pioneer points opened the frame, and the Smith lead eventually grew to 7-3 on an Ava Zollinger (Orlando, Fla./Lake Highland Prep) kill. WPI got it down to a three point deficit on a Wetmore kill, but an 8-0 run pushed the Smith lead to 16-5. The Engineers got no closer than an eight point deficit the rest of the way, as the Pioneers took the most lopsided frame of the night to earn a 3-1 match victory.
 
WPI continues its homestand on Saturday, hosting Westfield State at 11am and Gordon at 3pm. Smith also plays a pair of non-conference opponents at home on Saturday, hosting Framingham State and Southern Maine.