BROOKLYN -- Pratt Institute served 21 aces and hit .286 as a team, both season highs, in the Cannoneers 3-0 win over visiting Purchase College Thursday night in non-conference women's volleyball play at the ARC.
Hannah Calderwood and Alli Houghton both fired five aces, and Joan Wyth and Abby Nagy added three each. Calderwood and fellow junior Charlotte Burch led the Pratt attack, each crushing nine kills with three errors over 18 and 17 swings, respectively. Joanna Yeung added four kills on eight attacks with only one error for a match-high .375 attack percentage as Ashley Greene picked up her first win as Cannoneers head coach.
Nagy began Pratt's onslaught of aces off the opening serve, gunning all three of hers in anchoring a 7-0 run to open the night. The Panthers regrouped out of a timeout, but a Calderwood kill put the Cannoneers back up seven at 16-9, and aces from the middle hitter extended the lead to 18-10 and 21-10 in a 25-11 landslide.
Purchase held early leads in last two sets, but Greene's Cannoneers seized control before the midway points. Yeung's second kill of the set snapped a 7-7 tie in Game 2, and Pratt would never trail in the set again, with a Beryl Perron-Feller ace widening the lead to 17-12. A Nagy kill upped the lead to six at 20-14, and a Martina Tuaty kill closed out a 25-16 victory.
Panthers senior Jade Hackett converted an attack that found Purchase on top 12-11 in Game 3, but Houghton and Burch combined for a block assist preceeding a pair of Calderwood kills, capping a 4-0 run that turned the tide on the Panthers and swung the Cannoneers into control for good. Houghton and Burch soon struck again, with the former firing three straight aces to go on top 21-13 and the latter launching two straight aces that extended the lead to nine in the team's 25-15 win.
For Purchase, Julia Chirlin totaled six kills on 16 error-free swings for a team-best .375 attack percentage, but the Panthers hit only .087 as a team in falling to 0-3. Alex Lally led all players with 10 digs.
Playing only the final two sets, Houghton led all players with 17 set assists, while Nagy added 10.
After snapping a six-match losing streak to start 2015, Pratt (1-6) gets a taste of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference, traveling to the University of St. Joseph (CT) to take on the host Blue Jays and fellow GNAC opponent Suffolk University at the USJ tri-match on Saturday.
