Tom Salus

Women's Volleyball

No. 3 Mercy Defeats No. 7 Holy Family, 3-1, to Advance to NCAA Women's Volleyball East Region Championship Final

WALTHAM, Mass. – The AVCA All-East Region First Team trio of Grace Dilena, who finished just shy of a double-double with a match-high 23 kills and nine digs, Gabriela Bieniek, who added 14 kills, and Adriana Rivera Rodriguez, who boasted a match-high 37 assists, led No. 3 Mercy to a 3-1 (16-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-16) win over No. 7 Holy Family in the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship Second Round up at Bentley on Friday evening. 

With the win, the Mavericks (22-4) now advance to face the winner of No. 1 Bentley/No. 5 Post (playing at 7:00 PM this evening) in the 2025 NCAA Women's Volleyball East Region Championship Final tomorrow, December 6, at 6:00 PM. 

Kamila Colon added a match-high 11 digs while Mia Illes-Hair and Janneliz Rodriguez Fuentes combined for 11 blocks. 

Box Score

Tied 6-6 to open competition, Holy Family (23-10) used a 13-3 run to break away and ultimately take the opening set, 25-16. 

Mercy came back with fire, opening the second set with a 5-0 run on a service ace, back-to-back kills from Dilena, and back-to-back blocks from Kori Sessions and Illes-Hair. 

After multiple back-and-forth runs that saw the second set tied, 21-21, Mercy put it away with four consecutive points on kills from Bieniek and Dilena, both assisted by Rivera Rodriguez, and a block assist from Rodriguez Fuentes and Rivera Rodriguez before Rivera Rodriguez set up Dilena for the decisive kill that gave the Mavericks the 25-21, second-set victory to equalize, 1-1. 

Trailing 17-14 in the third set, the Mavericks scored five straight points on three Bieniek kills, all assisted by Rivera Rodriguez, and a pair of service aces sandwiched in between to go ahead, 19-17. 

Holy Family took advantage of a pair of Mercy errors to tie it up, 19-19, but the Mavericks took advantage of a series of HFU attack errors to rally for six of the next seven points, including the final four, to clinch the third set, 25-20. 

The Mavs conceeded three staight points to find themselves tied, 11-11, midway through the fourth, but a 7-2 Mercy run backed by a trio of Dilena kills put the Mavericks back up by five, 18-13, and the Mavericks finished strong on a 7-3, match-clinching run.