Carnegie Mellon Advances to UAA Volleyball Championship

Carnegie Mellon Advances to UAA Volleyball Championship

From Carnegie Mellon University Athletics

The 21st-ranked Carnegie Mellon University volleyball team will play for the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship after advancing to the finals of the championship tournament following two wins on Friday, November 4 at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The Tartans defeated the University of Rochester, 3-0, in the quarterfinals and the University of Chicago, 3-2, in the semifinals.

Sophomore Lauren Mueller (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown STEM Academy) tallied 11 kills with no errors in the victory against the Yellowjackets while senior Jackie Gibbons (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Township) recorded eight kills. Senior Emily Newton (Manhattan Beach, Calif./Chadwick School) had 28 assists while senior Molly Higgins (Vero Beach, Fla./Vero Beach) picked up 22 digs. Junior Eliza Donohue(Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield) stopped the Yellowjackets attack at the net with five block assists while sophomore Sarah Jurgens (Eagan, Minn./Eagan) had four block assists.

In the semifinal match against Chicago, the Tartans took a 2-0 lead with a 28-26 set-one win and a 25-21 set-two win. Chicago rallied with wins in the third and fourth sets by scores of 25-22 and 25-19 to force the winner-take-all fifth set which the Tartans won 15-11.

In the fifth set, Jurgens tallied four of her 10 kills as Mueller collected the match-winner and tallied a career-best 19 kills for the match. Gibbons put down 18 kills while hitting .516 and Newton registered 54 assists. Higgins collected a career-high 46 digs in the win while Mueller had 21, Newton 20 and freshman Kayla Yew (San Francisco, Calif./Sacred Heart Cathedral) 18.

The Tartans will play for the UAA Championship for the first time since 2001 and third time ever.