Senior captain Chandler McGrath tallied a career-high 24 kills in her final match as a Bobcat in the NESCAC Championships quarterfinals on Nov. 4, 2016. (File photo by Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College) 

MEDFORD, Mass. -- The seventh seeded Bates volleyball team saw their season come to an end Friday night at the NESCAC Championships in a 3-1 (25-21, 22-25, 25-22, 25-21) loss to second seeded Middlebury in the quarterfinals hosted by Tufts University. 

In her final collegiate match, senior captain Chandler McGrath (Seal Beach, Calif.) led all players with a career-high 24 kills. First-year Taylor Stafford-Smith (Calabasas, Calif.) chipped in 16 kills and 21 digs. Fellow first-year Gabi Eustache (New York, N.Y.) led all players with 31 digs. Meanwhile junior captain Jacqueline Forney (Bloomington, Ind.) set a career-high in assists with a match-high 51. Forney also contributed 14 digs. 

VIDEO: Forney sets up Bates volleyball for a bright future

Becca Raffel led the Panthers with 22 kills while Hannah Blackburn added 45 assists and 27 digs.

The Bobcats (11-14) and Panthers (16-8) split the first two sets before Middlebury took the final two to clinch the victory. 

A McGrath kill and a service ace from sophomore Claire Naughton (Darien, Conn.) gave Bates an early 2-1 lead in the first set. But the Panthers went on a quick 3-0 run to take a 4-2 lead.

The Bobcats battled back and tied the set at six on a Stafford-Smith kill.  

Middlebury regained the lead after that and kept the Bobcats at arm's length for the remainder of the set. The Bobcats did pull to within one later in the set at 18-17 thanks to a Naughton kill on an assist from Forney. 

But the Panthers called timeout and responded with a 4-0 run to once again create some distance between them and Bates. 

Up 23-21, the Panthers closed out the first set on an Alice Roberts kill and a block from Roberts and Sarah Staver.

The Bobcats responded in a big way in the second set.

Bates opened the second set on a 7-2 run behind a Naughton ace, a McGrath kill, multiple ball handling errors from Middlebury and a block from sophomore Reilly Murphy (Marshfield, Mass.).

But Middlebury went on a 5-0 run to even things up at seven. After Bates called timeout, the teams went back-and-forth for the middle part of the set. 

Bates found themselves down 15-14 when McGrath tied things up with a kill on an assist from Forney. Then they grabbed the lead for good on a Stafford-Smith block.

They extended the lead to 19-16 on another block from Stafford-Smith with some help from Naughton. The Panthers never got to within closer than two points after that and Bates finished off the 25-22 set two victory with another McGrath kill.

For most of the third set, it appeared the Bobcats had a very good chance to take control of the match. In fact, they took a 21-19 lead late in the set on a Naughton kill on an assist from Forney.

But a 4-0 run from Middlebury put them up 23-21 before a McGrath kill cut the deficit to one for Bates. Unfortunately for the Bobcats, Middlebury tallied the final two points of the set to get the huge 25-22 win thanks to a Bates attack error and a Raffel ace. 

Down two sets to one, the Bobcats got off to a 3-0 lead in the fourth set behind two McGrath kills as well as a kill from senior captain Hannah Tardie (Orange, Calif.).

The Panthers responded with a 5-1 run and the teams traded blows after that with a Naughton kill tying things up at 11 later in the set.

A 9-1 Middlebury run gave them a 20-12 lead but Bates refused to go away.

Senior Nicole Peraica (East Northport, N.Y.) tallied a kill later in the set to cut the Middlebury lead to 22-20. Raffel notched a kill and Sarah Staver contributed an ace to put the Panthers up 24-20. Stafford-Smith's kill cut the deficit to three but a Bates attack error ended the match.

The big statistical difference in the match was kill percentage, with Middlebury tallying a kill percentage of 24.1 while Bates' kill percentage was 14.9 on the evening.