MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Southern New Hampshire University women's volleyball team took down the No. 1 team in the NCAA East Region rankings, the University of New Haven, by a 3-0 score Saturday afternoon, before closing out a doubleheader with a 3-0 setback to Dowling College.  The Penmen, who defeated the Chargers for the first time in 14 tries, wrap up the regular season 17-10 and 9-5 in the NE-10.  New Haven sits 19-7 and 10-3 in the league, while Dowling improves to 20-8.

The set scores against New Haven were 25-19, 25-23, 25-20.

SNHU, which entered the day ranked No. 9 in the region, trailed 9-4 early in the first set before going on an 8-2 run to take a 12-11 lead on a Charger attack error.  The Penmen held a 21-19 lead when it scored the final four points of the set, with a Maeghan Higgins (Hesperia, Calif.) service ace closing out the set.  In the second set, Southern New Hampshire appeared to have things under control, leading 24-20 at a New Haven timeout, but the Chargers scored the next three points to pull within 24-23 on a Meghan Kennelly kill.  Megan Salamun (Scottsdale, Ariz.) responded with a kill to secure the second set.

In a back-and-forth third frame, the set was tied 19-19 before three straight SNHU points capped by a Charger attack error made it 22-19 in favor of the hosts.  Following a Penmen service error, Southern New Hampshire reeled off the final three points capped by a Kendra Mikuta (Orland Park, Ill.) kill.

Freshman Marisa Coronis (Hudson, N.H.) finished with 14 kills and just one error on 16 attempts for a .812 hitting percentage.  Salamun totaled 11 kills, while Nina McGouldrick (Richardson, Texas) totaled 10 kills and 11 digs.  Higgins totaled 15 digs, while Catherine Cotton (Murphy, Texas) posted her 12^th double-double of the season with 38 assists and 11 digs.

New Haven was led by Kristen Lee's 10 kills, while Kea-Marie Olaso notched 18 digs and Kaulana Ane handed out 20 assists.

In the nightcap, Dowling, ranked No. 5 in the region, won by scores of 25-17, 25-11, 25-11 as the Penmen elected to rest several players.  The Golden Lions were led by Jessica Kalbfleisch's 14 kills and 11 digs, while Katarzyna Klocek added eight kills.  Kayla Morgan had 15 digs, while Kayla Dillman handed out 28 assists.

Higgins had 13 digs defensively for Southern New Hampshire, while Carolyn Scacchi (Peabody, Mass.) had a team-high five kills.  Erin Cox (Andover, Mass.) handed out 12 assists.

Prior to Saturday's matches, Mikuta was honored as the team's lone senior.

Southern New Hampshire returns to action Tuesday night in the first round of the 2014 Northeast-10 Volleyball Championship on the road and will learn its opponent following Saturday's late action.

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Senior Kendra Mikuta was honored as the program's lone senior
prior to Saturday's matches.