From Washington University Athletics
The No. 7-ranked Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team finished the Elmhurst Invite II with three-set wins over University of Wisconsin-Platteville (25-13, 25-17, 25-11) and No. 11 Eastern University (25-21, 25-18, 25-18) Saturday.
Washington U. improved to 16-2 with the wins. The Bears return home to host Westminster College (Mo.) at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 24, at the WU Field House.
#7 Washington U. 3, UW-Platteville 0
The Bears led from start to finish to win the first set 25-13 against UW-Platteville. The Bears jumped out to an 8-2 lead behind an ace by junior Cassie Wang, six kills and a block. The closest the Pioneers got the remainder of the match was a 9-5 deficit and a 6-0 run midway through the set extended Washington U.'s lead to 21-10. A solo block by junior Jackie Nelligan gave the Bears set-point and sophomore Alex Sheredy tipped a ball down for a kill to give the Bears the 25-13 win.
In set two, UW-Platteville built an early 6-1 lead, and stretched it to 12-5 before a kill by Sheredy sparked an 18-3 run for the Bears. After a side-out for the Pioneers made it 16-15 in favor of Washington U., the Bears scored seven straight points with senior Lauren Yung serving to make it 23-15, before finishing with the 25-17 win to take a 2-0 lead in the match. Washington U. dominated the third set to win 25-11. A kill by UW-Platteville brought the Pioneers to within 10-6, but the Bears answered with an 8-1 run to take a commanding 18-7 lead, and continued to pull away to finish the match.
Washington U. hit .333 (41-11-90) in the match, while UW-Platteville finished with just a .010 (22-21-102) attack percentage. Sophomore Caroline Dupont led the Bears with 11 kills, while Nelligan and junior Allison Zastrow finished with seven kills each. Wang tallied 18 assists, and senior Lindsay Juriga added 14. Yung led Washington U. defensively with 13 digs.
#7 Washington U. 3, #11 Eastern 0
In the first set, back-to-back kills by Zastrow and Nelligan, followed by a block by the two juniors, gave the Bears a 7-3 lead and forced Eastern to take its first timeout. The Eagles got to within three several times, including a block that made the score 12-9 in favor of Washington U., but the Bears took advantage of a pair of errors by Eastern and Juriga served an ace to make it 15-9. The Eagles battled back to tie the score at 18-18 and took the lead at 20-19 on a kill. Washington U. answered by scoring six of the final seven points of the set to win 25-21.
After Eastern took an early 2-1 lead in the second set, Dupont and Sheredy accounted for five straight kills for the Bears, and Yung served an ace to make it 7-2 in favor of Washington U. After a timeout by Eastern, Dupont got another kill to continue what ended up being a 11-1 run for the Bears that also included an ace by Dupont on the back line that made it 13-3. The Eagles got to within six (13-7) with a kill, but the Bears maintained the lead throughout the remainder of the set to win 25-18 and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
Eastern jumped out to a 9-4 lead to begin the third set. After the Bears called timeout, Eastern served into the net and Washington U. responded by scoring the next five points to take a 10-9 lead. The teams traded points until back-to-back kills by sophomore Amanda Palucki and Nelligan made it 16-13 in favor of Washington U. The Eagles got to within one at 16-15, but the Bears used a 5-1 run to extend their lead to 21-16. After an attack by the Bears went into the net to make it 21-18, Washington U. got four kills by four different players to finish the match with a 25-18 win in set three.
Washington U. hit above .300 for the second time on the day, finishing with a .308 attack percentage (43-11-104). Eastern hit .155 (31-15-103) in the match. Dupont led the Bears with 10 kills, while hitting .500 (10-0-20). Nelligan also finished without an attacking error, tallying eight kills for a .471 attack percentage, and Palucki hit .455 (5-0-11). Wang had a team-high 22 assists, while Juriga finished with 14 assists and seven digs. Yung totaled a team-high 11 digs and two ace serves, and Sheredy also tallied double-digit digs with 10.
Bear Notebook: Washington U. leads the all-time series against UW-Platteville 8-1 and is 2-0 all-time against Eastern … WUSTL is now 4-1 against ranked opponents this season … The Bears have won eight straight matches … Nelligan finished the day with 15 kills and no errors while hitting .536, and has now had five matches without an attacking error this season.