Facing its next seven matches away from the friendly confines of Curry Hicks Cage, the Massachusetts women’s volleyball team looked to have a strong showing as it hosted the UMass Invitational this weekend. While not always pretty, the team’s consistent attack ultimately got the job done.

The Minutewomen polished off the rest of the tournament field en route to a 3-0 finish, improving their record to 5-2 on the young season. Dartmouth, Buffalo and New Hampshire entertained thoughts of knocking off their host, but were all shut down by powerful offensive and defensive efforts by a number of different players.

“I thought Celia Wiste, Lauren Vander Veen, and Janeen DeMarte hit very well all weekend,” head coach Bonnie Kenny said. “For us, we’re pretty versatile offensively.”

The Maroon and White got off to a rocky start, however, in its first match against Dartmouth on Friday night. The Big Green came out of the gates strong, forcing UMass into a series of errors and quickly building a 9-2 lead. After a Lauren Vander Veen kill cut the lead to 9-4, Dartmouth went on another run, stretching the margin to 15-4 before another Vander Veen kill stopped the bleeding. The Minutewomen seemed to get their act together at this point, but could not recover fully in losing the first game, 21-30.

“I told them that they might as well just forget about that first game, because they couldn’t have played any worse,” said Kenny.

Kenny’s advice worked, as the Maroon and White gained momentum once the second game started, and its offense began to come alive. With the home team ahead by a single point at 21-20, the Minutewomen pulled away with an offensive flurry, highlighted by three kills each from DeMarte and sophomore Nitia Small in winning the second game 30-21. The third and fourth games saw much of the same, as UMass took both games 30-22, and 30-21, respectively.

The team stymied the Dartmouth attack, never allowing them to rally off more than three points in a row. Meanwhile, the UMass offense was able to mount an inspired attack after the first game, led by 18 total kills by DeMarte and 15 by Vander Veen. Senior Lymarie Llovet also contributed 14 kills for the Minutewomen, and junior Jitka Stehnova racked up 59 assists in the match.

Saturday afternoon saw UMass tackle the Bulls from the University of Buffalo, with similar results. The Minutewomen emerged victorious 3-1 (30-21, 25-30, 30-23, 30-18) behind more strong play from Vander Veen, DeMarte, and Llovet. DeMarte and Llovet each finished with 17 kills, while Vander Veen chipped in with 14 for the Minutewomen.

Kenny described the Bulls as “really scrappy” and a “tough team to play,” but she was pleased with the overall effort given by her club.

“They created havoc for us, but I thought we got better after each game,” she said.

However, the Minutewomen saved their best performance for last, as they completely overwhelmed New Hampshire on Saturday night. It seemed the Maroon and White could do no wrong in sweeping the Wildcats 3-0 (30-18, 30-24, 30-23). Small led the way with 14 kills while contributing seven digs on the defensive end. DeMarte added in 13 kills and Vander Veen contributed ten in an all-around solid performance by the entire Maroon and White squad.

“Our offense was on fire,” said Kenny. “Our attack was extremely well-balanced tonight.”

After falling behind to the Wildcats 12-6 early in the first game, the Minutewomen took charge, rallying off nine straight points to go up 15-12. The run was made possible by kills from Stehnova and Wiste, as well as taking advantage of several errors by UNH. When the Wildcats cut the lead to 22-17 later on in the game, UMass went on another run, highlighted by two kills each from Wiste and DeMarte to take eight of the final nine points.

The trend continued in the second and third games, as any time UNH mustered any semblance of a rally, the Minutewomen were there to put up more points and dash any hopes the visitors had of victory. Kenny contributed the solid performance to being aware in advance of the Wildcats’ game plan, and using this knowledge to their advantage.

“We knew what they were going to do, and we knew if we could stop it, they wouldn’t be able to do much else,” she said.

The Minutewomen will kick off a seven game road trip next weekend as they travel to Tallahassee, Fla. to participate in the Florida State Classic.