Northampton, Mass. - The Trinity College volleyball team fell, 3-1, to the WPI Engineers on Friday evening on the first day of the Hall of Fame Volleyball Invitational at Ainsworth Gymnasium on the campus of Smith College. Trinity falls to 6-11 overall while the Engineers improve to 9-15 on the year. Trinity returns to action tomorrow on the second day of the tournament, playing Brandeis at 1 p.m. followed by Wellesley at 3 p.m., both at LeFrak Gymnasium on Amherst's campus.

The Bantams won the first set, 25-23, but dropped the next three, 7-25, 16-25 and 20-25. Trinity was led by junior Hanna Engstrom (Hopkinton, Mass.) and sophomore Colette Scheffers (Flossmoor, Ill.) who both finished with six kills on the evening. Junior co-captain Rachel Underwood (Danville, Calif.) and sophomore Wyllie Boughton (Andover, Mass.) each tallied a pair of aces while Underwood also had 13 digs to go along with five kills. Rookie Jess Yang (Pacific Palisades, Calif.) led the squad with 26 assists and 18 digs. 

WPI had four players finish with double-digit kills as Colleen Mullins (Andover, Mass.) had 13, Melissa Daigle (Norfolk, Mass.) had 12 and Brooke Klepper (Miami Beach, Fla.) and Sarah Kwatinetz (Seattle, Wash.) both tallied 11. Victoria Nassar (Salem, N.H.) led the Engineers with 30 digs while teammate Azita Bakhtyari (Andover, Mass.) led all players with 42 assists.

Trinity found itself up 15-12 in the first set after a kill by Varner but WPI came roaring back to take a 18-16 advantage. Scheffers answered for the Bantams with an ace, followed by a WPI error, that tied things at 18-18. The two sides kept it close the rest of the way until Varner finished the set with a kill to put Trinity up, 1-0.

WPI dominated the second set, opening a 9-2 lead before rattling off a 10-2 run to go up 19-4, eventually clinching the set 25-7. The Engineers went up once again in set three, this time by a score of 8-2, after a Bantam attack error followed by a kill from Daigle. Trinity fought hard to cut the deficit to 16-14, but WPI answered with five-straight points to go up 21-14. The Engineers won on an ace by Bakhtyari. WPI ran up a 21-14 lead in the fourth set before eventually winning 25-20.