NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Connecticut College women's volleyball team dropped a hard-fought 3-0 decision to Tufts University on Saturday afternoon in a NESCAC clash at Luce Field House.

The Jumbos (9-7, 6-1 NESCAC) eked out the first two sets before rolling in the third, winning by final scores of 25-23, 25-23 and 25-14. Emma Heckman posted a match-high 11 kills on 25 swings while Claire Castor added a double-double of 10 kills and 11 digs. 

Mila Chan (San Francisco, Calif.) and Rae Wartelle (Tacoma, Wash.) paced the Camels with eight and seven kills, respectively. Katherine Randall (Chicago, Ill.) finished with a team-high 12 digs while Josie Kelly (Solana Beach, Calif.) handed out 20 assists.

In the opening set, Tufts jumped out to a 3-0 lead and later expanded the margin to 9-5. Conn reigned them in behind a 6-1 spurt to pull in front 15-13, but the Jumbos quickly snatched the lead back with four straight points. The rest of the set was back and forth between the two sides, although Tufts grabbed the final two points thanks to a kill by Maiwenn Kamdje and an ace by Rianna Liu.

Neither team led by more than two in the second set until a 4-0 run by Tufts yielded a 22-18 advantage. Chan supplied a pair of kills as the Camels fought their way back to 24-23, but Castor provided her sixth kill of the stanza to give the Jumbos the set and a 2-0 edge in the match.

After falling behind 7-2 in the third, the Camels fought back with five straight points to even up the score. However, the Jumbos won nine of the next 10 rallies to go up 16-8, and later they closed out the match behind a 6-2 stretch that featured a pair of kills from both Heckman and Akpevwe Akpoigbe. 

Conn (10-6 overall, 1-5 NESCAC) will next play at Eastern Connecticut State University on Wednesday, October 16 at 6:00 p.m.