Auburn, ME – A combined 20 kills by Autumn Peterson and Isabella Higgins were not enough as the CMCC volleyball team lost its third straight match with a 3-1 defeat at home to rivals Southern Maine Community College. The Mustangs rallied back to take the third set and prevent a sweep, but fell behind 8-0 in the fourth set, a hole they could not dig out of.

Meryk Lewellen led the Seawolves with 13 kills and 16.5 points while Lillian Andreasen had nine kills and six service aces. Peterson filled up the stat sheet for Central Maine, tallying 11 kills, two aces, four digs, and two blocks. Higgins followed with nine kills while Shalamar Szarka came through with 19 assists and 17 digs.

SMCC took the first set 25-21. Andreasen and Lewellen were dangerous at the service line each getting a pair of aces and helping the Seawolves turn a 1-3 deficit into an 11-4 lead. The Mustangs never got within three points after that.

The second set was a much more back-and-forth affair. Both teams traded aces and service errors in the middle part of the frame. The Mustangs held a two point advantage for much of the set until late on. Elise Kaplan put SMCC up 19-18 with a kill, and Andreasen did the rest from the line. The first-year from Gorham, ME had three aces and drew a couple attack errors from CMCC. That set up Lewellen for a kill on match point to take the set 25-18.

The Mustangs flipped the script in the third set. After trailing most of the way through the early stages, Central Maine made a run of seven straight points behind some solid serves by Keliah Stith and kills by Higgins and Peterson to take a 22-17 lead. The Seawolves still made them sweat a little bit before a Natalie Roy kill ended things for a 25-21 set victory.

However, Southern Maine stole the wind out of CMCC's sails by jumping out to an 8-0 lead in the fourth set. Dalia Nelson's serves kept the Mustangs off balance and induced three attack errors. The hosts battled back to within two points at 13-15 midway through, threatening to force a deciding fifth set. But some Anna White and Nelson serves combined with kills by Scarlette Sawyer and Yana Montell helped SMCC pull away to a 22-14 advantage. A service error on match point ended the set 25-20.

The win keeps Southern Maine on top of the YSCC standings with an 11-1 record and finishes off a season sweep of Central Maine. The Mustangs meanwhile sit third in the conference with an 8-3 record and are in line to host a first-round playoff match.