From Washington University Athletics
The No. 5-ranked Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team earned a 26-24, 25-18, 25-18 win over Carnegie Mellon University to claim third place at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship tournament Saturday morning.
With the win, Washington U. improved to 33-5 overall.
Washington U. and Carnegie Mellon battled back-and-forth throughout the first set. Back-to-back blocks and an ace serve gave the Tartans a 12-8 lead and forced Washington U. to call a timeout. A serve into the net by Carnegie Mellon gave the Bears a side-out, and kills by sophomores Alex Sheredy and Caroline Dupont, along with a solo block by Dupont, tied the score at 12-12. After a kill by Carnegie Mellon, Dupont notched her fourth kill of the set and junior Allison Zastrow tipped over the block for a kill to make it 14-13 in favor of the Bears. Dupont then served an ace and Zastrow hammered a sharp kill off an overpass by the Tartans to extend the Bears' lead to 16-13.
Carnegie Mellon rallied to tie at 16-16, before being whistled for being in the net on a joust. A kill by sophomore Amanda Palucki and an ace serve by Zastrow made it 19-16 Washington U. The Bears held a 22-21 lead after junior Nkiru Udenze hustled for a dig that dropped on Carnegie Mellon's side of the net for a kill, but a kill by the Tartans and back-to-back errors by the Bears gave Carnegie Mellon a set-point opportunity at 24-22. The Tartans hit a ball just wide of the sideline on the next point and Sheredy tooled the block to tie the score at 24-24. After a Carnegie Mellon timeout, Sheredy and Dupont put away back-to-back kills as the Bears rallied for the 26-24 win in set one.
The Bears came out firing in the second set, tallying 10 kills on their first 20 attacks to build an 11-4 lead. The Tartans rallied to within 17-13 after back-to-back attacking errors by the Bears, but the Bears scored four of the next five points to make it 21-14 and force Carnegie Mellon to call its second timeout. The teams traded points until the Tartans cut the lead to 23-18, but Sheredy got a tip to fall for a kill and Zastrow served an ace down the sideline to give the Bears the 25-18 win in set two. Zastrow accounted for seven of the Bears' 21 kills in the set.
A cross-court kill by Sheredy found the sideline to help the Bears build an early 4-2 lead in set three, but Carnegie Mellon got a kill and back-to-back blocks to take a 5-4 lead, its first lead since the first set. Washington U. regained the lead, 6-5, on a tip by Nelligan and a ball-handling error against the Tartans. After trading points to a 7-7 tie, Nelligan got a kill off the block and Udenze hit a kill down the line to make it 9-7 in favor of the Bears. After a side-out by Carnegie Mellon, Washington U. went on an 8-2 run that included two kills each by Zastrow and Sheredy to stretch the lead to 17-10. Kills by Sheredy and Palucki extended the Bears' lead to as many as nine points (21-12). The Tartans battled through two match-point opportunities for the Bears, but Zastrow's 15th kill of the match gave Washington U. the 25-18 win in set three.
Washington U. hit .308 (55-19-117) in the match, while limiting Carnegie Mellon to a .194 (31-11-103) attack percentage. The Bears also tallied five ace serves to the Tartans' one, and out-dug Carnegie Mellon 52-33. The Tartans used an 8-3 block advantage to keep them in the match defensively.
Zastrow just missed her second triple-double of the season, finishing with a career-high 15 kills, 15 assists and nine digs, while hitting at a .542 (15-2-24) clip. Sheredy also had a double-double with 11 kills and 11 digs. Udenze tallied nine kills, and Dupont added eight kills while hitting .500 (8-1-14). Nelligan chipped in with seven kills. Juriga recorded a career-high 29 assists and nine digs, and sophomore Kalehua Katagiri led the Bears defensively with 17 digs, including eight in the first set.
Bear Notebook: The Bears improved to 116-9 all-time in the UAA Championship tournament … Washington U. leads the all-time series against Carnegie Mellon 47-2, and earned a four-set win over the Tartans at the second UAA Round Robin Oct. 19 … This was a rematch of the third-place match from last year's UAA Championship, which Carnegie Mellon won in five sets … Katagiri brought her dig total to 612 for the season, passing Laura Brazeal (596) and Nicole Hodgman (606) for third on Washington U.'s all-time single-season list.