Auburn, ME – CMCC Volleyball continued its strong start to the season on home court, defeating the Great Bay Community College Herons, 3-1 at the Kirk Hall Gymnasium Wednesday night. Sophomore Isabella Higgins hammered down 11 kills while also leading the team with 11 digs, and captain Keliah Stith had 19 assists to go along with a team-high five service aces in the win.

The Mustangs took the first set 25-19, taking advantage of some attacking and service errors by the Herons to go up 12-5 early on. The visitors dug in though and got the set back level at 17-17 to make it a close finish. Kills by Stith and Autumn Peterson got the hosts to set point, and Cierra-Lynn Sheppard finished it off with an ace for the early lead.

The second set stayed close until about the same point with Great Bay leading 3-1 at the start and staying right with Central Maine to make it 16-16. However, that's when the Mustangs pulled away. A run of Errow Hinckley serves and a series of attacking errors by the Herons allowed CMCC to take it 25-16 and go up two sets to none.

Great Bay would not go down easily though. They rallied to take the third set 25-23, winning nine straight points to turn a 15-18 deficit into a 24-18 lead. Isabella Raiti got the kill to finish off the set and put an end to a five-point comeback attempt by the Mustangs.

Unlike Central Maine's season opener, this match would not go the distance to the full five sets. In the fourth, CMCC outpaced Great Bay by better than a two-to-one margin to take a commanding 19-8 lead. The team managed the gap from there for a 25-15 set win to end the game.

Both teams still showed there were kinks to iron out with each side having more than 25 attacking errors. The Mustangs were helped by a 15-8 edge in service aces, and picked up 34 kills compared to the Herons' 25. CMCC is next in action on the road on Saturday against USCAA DI opponent UMaine-Fort Kent for their most difficult test to this point in the year.