THE BASICS 

Score: MIT 3, Emerson 2

Records: Emerson Lions (4-3, 0-1 NEWMAC) ; MIT Engineers (8-0, 1-0 NEWMAC)

Location: Cambridge, Mass. 

Date: September 14, 2021

The Lead: In the Emerson women's volleyball team's first taste of NEWMAC action on Tuesday night across town at MIT, the Lions forced five sets, but came up short in a 3-2 setback to the Engineers. Freshman Parker Cummings paced the Lions with 13 kills, while classmate Rachel Scott registered 27 assists. 

INSIDE THE NUMBERS 

EMERSON

Cummings: 13 kills
Scott: 27 assists
Amelia Combs: two aces
Caroline Davis: 20 digs

MIT

Ella Gragg: 15 kills, five aces
Emily Cheng: 55 assists
Ottavia Personeni: 18 digs

HOW IT HAPPENED 

• The lead went back and forth in the opening of the first frame and with the score locked at 6-all, it was then that MIT began to break away from Emerson. A 9-0 spurt by the Engineers ballooned the host's lead up to nine (15-9).
• Two swings by freshman Brooke Maynez helped Emerson remain within single digits of MIT at 16-9, but the Engineers fired off a string of five straight points to give themselves the 12-point cushion (21-9).
• A trio of kills from senior Carolyn Vaimoso pushed Emerson back to within nine of MIT (21-12), yet it was the Engineers who tallied the 25-13 set win on a kill by Alyssa Unell. 
• Junior Logan Steenbergen notched Emerson's first point of the second set and got the Emerson offense going as the Lions bumped their lead to 16-10. MIT, however, answered with six consecutive points to pull even at 16-all.
• Emerson broke the 16-all tie with a 5-1 run that got the Lions' lead up to four (21-17). After the visitors gained a five-point 24-19 lead, the Engineers stayed alive with three kills from Gragg as the hosts closed within two. Emerson held on and sealed the 25-22 win thanks to a Maynez swing. 
• After Emerson jumped out to a fast 6-2 start in the third and maintained a lead of three at 11-8, MIT surged and put up a 6-0 streak as the Lions now trailed by three (14-11). 
• Emerson never strayed far from MIT, staying within at least three of the Engineers through the remainder of the frame. The Lions tacked on their final point on a Vaimoso kill as MIT used a pair of errors to snag the 25-20 win and go up two sets to one. 
• Like Emerson did in the third set, MIT started the fourth set with a bang and an 8-3 lead. Emerson battled back to square the frame at 11-all behind a 8-2 run. MIT went back up a pair, only to have the Lions use four kills to jump ahead a pair (17-15). 
• The two teams exchanged the lead several times through the closing of the fourth, but it was Emerson who closed out the frame on a 6-2 streak as a kill from Combs locked the 25-22 win and square the match at 2-all to force a fifth set.
• To begin the fifth, Emerson started off with the 4-2 lead, which was the last time the Lions would hold the lead. MIT answered with a string of six straight scores to go up four (8-4) and kept Emerson within three until a late 3-0 run that would put the visitors down six (13-7). 
• Emerson was able to tally two more points before MIT claimed the 15-9 win on back-to-back kills. 

UP NEXT 

• Emerson heads back home to Brown & Plofker on Saturday, September 18th with its first NEWMAC home contest against WPI at 1:00 p.m.