Box Score - Pine Manor
Box Score - Mitchell 

New London, CT (Sept. 6, 2014) – The Purchase College women's volleyball team jumped into the win column Saturday at Mitchell College as part of a road tri-match. 

The Panthers defeated Pine Manor 3-0 for their first victory of 2014. Pine Manor, which also lost to Mitchell in the first match of the day, fell behind early to Purchase in the second match.

Purchase raced out to an 18-10 advantage in the first set, before scoring seven of the final eight points in the set to take a 25-11 victory in the opening set against Pine Manor.

The Panthers held an advantage throughout the second set, with the Gators unable to get any closer than three points in the late stages. PMC closed the gap to 15-18 on a service ace, and again at 16-19 following a kill, but would get no closer, as Purchase earned the 25-18 set victory.

Panther Sarah Gabler (SO/East Concord, NY) led all players with seven kills, while also recording nine digs in the match.

PMC's Ashley Whiteshield and Purchase's Alex Lally (SO/Sunnyvalle, Texas) both recorded 13 assists in the match.  

With the scored tied at 12-all in the third set, the traveling Panthers rattled off five unanswered points to take 17-12 advantage before closing out the match with the 25-19 set victory.

In the most competitive showdown of the day, Mitchell and Purchase traded sets and leads throughout the entire match en route to a 3-2 Mitchell win.

The Mariners almost had the contest clinched in the fourth set, but the Panthers rallied back with five straight points to force a deciding set.

The Mariners raced out to a 9-1 lead in the fifth set and looked ready to close out the match in style.

However, a kill by Julia Chirlin (FR/Albany, NY) gave the serve back to Purchase, and she rallied the team from the service stripe with a pair of aces and five straight points to close the gap to 9-7.

The Panthers later tied the score at 10-10 on an ace by Sarah Gabler, and neither team led by more than two the rest of the way. 

With the score tied at 14-14, a kill put the Mariners in front before Gabler answered for the Panthers. Mitchell then took a 16-15 lead with another big kill, and followed suit on the final play to close out the match.

Amanda Garcia led the Mariners with 15 kills that included five in the fifth set alone.

Chirlin led the Panthers with 15 kills while Lally and Gabler recorded seven apiece. Lally also dished out 25 assists and added 15 digs.

Purchase's home opener is set for Wednesday night at 7 p.m. as the Panthers host Lehman College.

-Pine Manor and Mitchell Sports Information Contributed to this report