AMHERST, Mass. -- Charlotte Rasmussen notched 16 kills and Kinsey Cronin added 10 Friday to help the Amherst College volleyball team to a 3-0 sweep of Connecticut College in the first round of the NESCAC Tournament. 

The win improved the Mammoths record to 8-11 overall. They advance to take on top-seed Wesleyan in a NESCAC Tournament quarterfinal Sunday at 2 p.m. in Middletown, CT.

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS:

* Tied 1-1 in the first set, Anaya Thomas served six straight points to give the Mammoths a 7-1 lead. They would never trail from that point. Rasmussen played a big role in the run with three kills, and Chideraa Ngwadom had another kill. 

* A Carly Cooper kill made it 12-4 before the Camels stormed back, cutting the Amherst lead to just three at 16-13. Back-to-back kills from Kinsey Cronin off Cooper sets allowed the Mammoths to extend its lead to 20-14. A service ace from Rasmussen made it 23-18. Up 23-20, two Camels errors allowed Amherst to close out the first set win at 25-20. 

* A 9-4 run in the middle of the second set turned an 11-9 lead in a 20-13 lead en route to a 25-17 victory. Rasmussen and Chloe Chanren team up for a block kill that made it 13-9 Amherst. Ngwadom had a kill for a 14-10 advantage for the home team. A couple of kills by Rasmussen set up by Cooper made it 16-11 and then a Cooper kill while Rasmussen was serving made it 17-11. Rasmussen added a couple of more kills to help the Mammoths maintain a six-point lead heading into te final stages of the game, and a Ngwadom kill ended the second set.

* The third and what turned out to be final final set was a back-and-forth affair for much of the set, but Amherst took control late with a 9-1 run late to claim the set and the match. 

* With the set tied 16-all, a couple of Conn. College errors gave the Mammoths a two-point lead. Cooper then made a great play, racing to her left and quickly knocking done an attack past a Camel defender at the net for a three-point lead. A Cooper service ace then made it 22-16. After the Camels gained back a point, a service error was followed by a big block from Chanren and Ngwadom that ended the match and set the LeFrak Gymnasium crowd into a frenzy.



BY THE NUMBERS:

* Cooper finished the match with 5 kills, 30 assists and 10 digs. Thomas had 4 kills and 17 digs. Lizzie Papalia led the team with 19 digs. 

* Cronin had 10 kills and just one attack error, hitting .474 for the match. 

* Rasmussen added 11 digs and 2 block assists to her 16-kill night. Chanren finished wiht 4 block assists.