First-year Gabi Eustache had a match-high 12 digs in Bates' 3-0 loss at Tufts on Oct. 14, 2016. (File photo by Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College) 

MEDFORD, Mass. -- First-place Tufts stayed unbeaten in NESCAC play with a 3-0 (25-10, 25-19, 25-14) victory over the Bates volleyball team Friday night in Cousens Gym.

The Jumbos (16-1, 8-0 NESCAC) made a loud statement in the first set, using 17 kills and just one attack error in 25 attempts for a .600 hitting percentage. Tufts went on to register effective percentages of .387 and .258 in the next two sets in downing Bates (6-10, 3-4 NESCAC) for their eighth straight victory.

Senior Chandler McGrath (Seal Beach, Calif.), the current NESCAC Player of the Week, led Bates with 11 kills and sophomore Claire Naughton (Darien, Conn.) added four. Junior Jacqueline Forney (Bloomington, Ind.) had a match-high 22 assists with six digs, while first-year Gabi Eustache (New York, N.Y.) had a match-high 12 digs.

Elizabeth Ahrens notched a match-high 13 kills on just 15 attempts (.867) for the Jumbos. Brigid Bell and Mackenzie Bright added seven kills apiece, with Bell adding a team-high 10 digs. Katie Zheng (21 assists) and Angela Yu (19) split setting duties; Zheng had three of Tufts' nine service aces in the match.

Tufts had 44 kills and nine errors on 87 attack attempts in the match (.402).

Bates plays a pair of matches at Bowdoin on Saturday, beginning with a NESCAC contest against the host Polar Bears at 1pm. Bates and Emerson face off in the same gym at 3pm.