Box Score 
MEDFORD - One of four players honored pregame on Seniors Night, Cate Desler (pictured) went out and hammered 19 kills to lead the Tufts University volleyball team to a 3-0 victory over Amherst College at Cousens Gym Friday night.
The Jumbos won their fifth in a row to improve to 14-4 and 5-2 in the league. The loss is just the second of the season for the Mammoths (11-2, 5-2 NESCAC). Tufts won decisively in the first two sets 25-18 and 25-16 before closing out the match 25-22 in the third.
Stephanie Lee was outstanding again defensively for the Jumbos with 24 digs in the three sets. She's now averaging 4.54 digs per set for the season. Desler's 19 kills tonight came with just two errors on 37 swings for a .432 percentage. Christine Audette and Rileigh Farragher both added nine kills while Maya Lightfoot finished with eight. Maddie Yu served three aces and added 27 assists.
Caroline Tilton led Amherst with 12 kills while Jamie Dailey recorded nine with no errors on a match-high 41 attempts (.220). She also served three aces and led the Mammoths with 10 digs.
The first set was 10-10 before Yu served back-to-back aces that gave Tufts a lead they would not relinquish. The Jumbos pulled away from the Mammoths to win the set by seven points led by three kills from Farragher down the stretch.
The Jumbos got kills from five different players while taking a 7-2 lead in the second set, with two each from Desler and Farragher. They led comfortably throughout, including a more-than-comfortable 20-8 margin on a Desler kill. Tufts would win it by nine.
Desler's two kills and then two service aces turned a 17-17 tie in the third set into a 22-17 lead. Then kills by Jennifer Ryan, Lightfoot and Desler, appropriately, finished off the impressive Jumbo win.
Middlebury College comes in to Cousens tomorrow for a 1:30 PM match with Tufts. Amherst continues on to play at Bowdoin on Saturday at 2 PM.
