LEWISTON, Maine -- The University of Southern Maine Huskies prevailed 3-2 over the Bates College volleyball team Wednesday night in Alumni Gym, defeating the in-state rival for the first time since 1985 by holding off a rally by the hosts.

The non-conference match had a Jekyll and Hyde character to it. The first two sets were very close, back-and-forth action, with the visiting Huskies prevailing by two points in each frame, 27-25 and 25-23. Bates won the third set handily by a 25-13 score, then jumped out to a 13-0 lead in the fourth set en route to a 25-10 win, pushing the match to a fifth set, where the Huskies regrouped and won 15-12.

Bates (7-14) attacked at a .089 percentage in the first set, .000 in the second, .375 in the third, .529 in the fourth and then -.033 in the fifth, to finish at .176 as a team.

USM (12-14) played with a more even effort, and played at its best in the fifth set, attacking at .222 after posting .167, -.065, .065 and .074 attack rates in the first four sets.

USM got out to a 5-1 lead in the final set with two kills and a solo block by Lagando. Bates relled off five straight points to take a 9-7 lead, with a pair of aces served by Eide and kills by Cayla Deacon and Sydney Phillips. Both teams traded three-point runs, with Brianna Delloiacono getting back-to-back kills for the Huskies, and kills by Charlotte Morris and Phillips returning the lead to Bates at 12-10. 

USM called timeout and proceeded to win the next five points and the match. Sarah Haggerty gave the Huskies the lead for good at 13-12 with a kill, then earned a solo block to make it 14-12. The match ended with a Bates attack error.

Delloiacono led USM with 12 kills, while Haggerty added 10 kills and four blocks. Madison Zimmer posted five blocks. Sophie Lindsay had a big match with 33 assists, 16 digs three aces and four blocks.

Phillips tallied a career-high 18 kills for Bates, Morris added a career-high 12 kills, and Alyssa Lowther posted 11 kills. Megan Seabury had a match-high 28 digs and Emma Eide had a career-high 50 assists to go with 13 digs and seven kills.

Bates stays at home for the last two matches of the regular season this weekend, hosting No. 22 Tufts on Friday at 7pm and Bowdoin on Saturday at 2pm.

USM concludes Little East Conference play Saturday at home against Western Connecticut State.