BRUNSWICK, Maine -- The fifth-seeded Amherst College volleyball team pushed top-seeded Bowdoin College to five sets but fell in the semifinals of the NESCAC Championship, 18-25, 25-18, 25-21, 16-25, 15-11, on Saturday at Morrell Gymnasium.

The Polar Bears (21-4) advance to play the winner of the Wesleyan/Tufts semifinal on Sunday at noon in the NESCAC final. The Mammoths (16-5) will wait to see if they are selected as one of 20 at-large berths to join 44 conference champions in the NCAA Championship when the field is announced on Monday, November 8, at 12:30 p.m. Amherst entered this week ranked fifth in the NCAA Region I rankings, one of 10 regions across Division III.

SET NOTES

• The first set was tied at 8-8 before Amherst scored 4 straight points on the serve of Skyleur Savage and never gave up the lead. The set was close until the end when the Mammoths closed on a 5-1 run to take the set by a 25-18 score.
• Bowdoin answered with a 25-18 win in the second set. The third set was tied at 16-16 before the Polar Bears pulled away for a 25-21 win to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
• Once again a set away from elimination, Amherst responded by jumping out to a 13-5 lead in the fourth set and building that lead to take the most lopsided set of the day by a 25-16 margin.
• The decisive fifth set was close until the end with the teams trading points to reach a 10-10 tie and neither side taking more than a two-point lead before the Polar Bears closed out the match with kills on the final three rallies for a 15-11 victory.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Senior Jamie Dailey tallied a season-best 23 kills to reach a total of 301 kills on the season with a NESCAC-leading average of 3.96 kills per set. Dailey also posted a game-high 33 digs and added 3 blocks.
• Junior Caroline Tilton contributed 19 kills and was in on 2 blocks.
• Sophomore Carly Cooper posted 47 assists, added a pair of aces and hit .333 to lead the Mammoths.