No. 1 Washington U. Downs Carnegie Mellon, No. 6 Emory at UAA Round Robin
CARNEGIE BOX | EMORY BOX
Pittsburgh, Pa., October 14, 2012 – Strong defense and a balanced attack helped the No. 1-ranked Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team earn a sweep over Carnegie Mellon University (25-14, 25-18, 25-20) and a five-set win over No. 6 Emory University (28-26, 25-22, 16-25, 23-25, 15-12) on the final day of the second University Athletic Association (UAA) Round Robin on Sunday in Pittsburgh.
With the two wins, Washington U. (24-2, 6-1 UAA) finished in a tie for first place with Emory and University of Chicago in the UAA standings. Emory (22-4, 6-1 UAA) earned the No. 1 seed for the UAA Championship Tournament with a 5-3 record in sets against Washington U. and Chicago. Chicago will be the second seed, while the Bears will be the No. 3 seed. The UAA Championship is scheduled for Friday-Saturday, Nov. 2-3 at Emory in Atlanta.
#1 Washington U. 3, Carnegie Mellon 0
In the first match of the day, Washington U. earned a sweep of Carnegie Mellon. The Bears jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the opening set behind six-straight points served by freshman right-side hitter/setter Allison Zastrow. Washington U. continued to pull away and a kill by junior outside hitter Meghan Byrne finished the set for the Bears, 25-14. Four ace serves in the second set propelled the Bears to a 25-18 win, despite hitting .162 in the set. Washington U. led throughout the third set, but the Tartans cut the lead to 21-18, before back-to-back kills by freshman middle hitter Jackie Nelligan and freshman outside hitter Nkiru Udenze and an attacking error by Carnegie Mellon gave the Bears a 24-18 lead. The Tartans fought off two match-point opportunities for the Bears, before a kill by Udenze ended the match, 25-20.
Senior outside hitter Drew Hargrave had a team-high eight kills, while Nelligan and junior middle hitter Emily Tulloch tallied seven kills each while hitting .462. Zastrow finished with 32 assists and two aces. Senior libero Kelly Pang led the defense with 19 digs and also added three aces, while sophomore defensive specialist Lauren Yung recorded 11 digs.
#1 Washington U. 3, #6 Emory 2
After splitting the first four sets, Washington University earned a 15-12 win in the fifth set to clinch the match victory over Emory by hitting .364 (9-1-22) behind three kills each by Nelligan and Hargrave in the deciding set. The teams traded points through a tie at 11-11, before a kill by Hargrave and a solo block by Tulloch gave the Bears a 13-11 advantage and force Emory to take a timeout. The Eagles got a kill to cut the lead to 13-12, before back-to-back kills by Hargrave and junior right-side hitter Tessa Blood sealed the win for the Bears.
The teams played point for point to open the first set, before Emory 6-0 run to take an 18-11 lead. The Eagles maintained the seven-point lead (20-13), but Washington U. answered with kills by Blood and Nelligan, and back-to-back blocks by Nelligan and Fisher followed by Nelligan and Byrne to make it 20-17. An error by the Bears gave Emory a 21-17 lead, before a five-point run by the Bears including three kills by Hargrave, gave Washington U. a 22-21 lead. The teams then traded points to a tie at 26-26 before kills by Byrne and Blood ended the set, 28-26.
In the second set, Washington U. held a 10-8 lead before scoring six unanswered points, including a pair of kills by junior middle hitter Kaia Schwartz and an ace serve by junior defensive specialist Tanya Marvi. After a timeout by the Eagles, Emory rallied to cut the Bears’ lead to 16-13. Emory got as close as one point (23-22), but back-to-back kills by Hargrave gave the Bears a 25-22 win and a 2-0 lead in the match.
Emory’s offense got hot in the third set, and the Eagles led throughout the set to get a 25-16 win and pull to within 2-1 in the match. In the fourth set, the Eagles grabbed an 18-13 lead, before the Bears ran off four-straight points, including a block by Blood, Schwartz and Hargrave, and a solo block and kill by Hargrave, to pull to within 17-18. The Eagles stretched their lead back to four (23-19), but Washington U. rallied to score four-straight points on two kills by Byrne and two blocks by Nelligan and senior setter Marilee Fisher to tie the score (23-23). A ball-handling error on the Bears and a block by the Eagles gave Emory a 25-23 win to force a fifth set.
The Bears hit .229 (64-20-192) and recorded a season-high 14.5 blocks in the match. Hargrave led four players with double-digit kills, finishing with 20 kills and four blocks. Blood and Byrne tallied 14 kills and five digs apiece, while Nelligan recorded 10 kills and six blocks. Fisher notched 56 assists, nine digs and four blocks. Pang led the Bears defensively with 37 digs, the second-highest single-match total in Washington U. history behind her 47 digs against Chicago on Saturday. Marvi finished with 18 digs, and Yung recorded a career-high 13 digs in the match.
Washington University (24-2, 6-1 UAA) returns to action by hosting the Halloween Invitational on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 26-27, at the WU Field House. The Bears will take on Alverno College at 3 p.m. and No. 21 Juniata College at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, before facing St. Ambrose University at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. Prior to Friday’s match against Juniata, the Bears will honor their four seniors – Fisher, Hargrave, Pang, and defensive specialist Meg Buker.
Bear Notebook: Washington U. improved to 45-1 all-time against Carnegie Mellon and 46-7 all-time against Emory … Pang improved her Washington University career digs record to 2,358 … Fisher is just 23 assists shy of moving into fourth on the Washington U. career assists list … Hargrave now has 2,921 career attacks and needs 46 more to move into ninth on the all-time career list at Washington U.