From Washington University Athletics
Seniors Rexi Sheredy and Caroline Dupont combined for 28 kills for the Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team in a 3-1 home victory against crosstown opponent Webster University Thursday evening at the Field House.
The Bears (10-6 Overall) defeated their second St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) opponent of the week, previously defeating Greenville College on Tuesday. The loss drops Webster to 9-5 on the season.
WashU 3 – Webster 1 (25-23, 25-8, 22-25, 25-21)
WashU jumped out to a 2-0 lead by scores of 25-23 and 25-8. The impressive second set, saw the Bears successfully attack the opposition with a .529 percentage. The team committed a single error compared to 10 kills. Webster however had six errors to four kills during the second set leading to the lopsided win.
Sheredy finished the second set with six of her 14 total kills on the match. Dupont added two of her 14 kills, while also contributing an ace.
The Gorloks fought back with a third set 25-22 win. WashU trailed 10-8 before kills from Zoe Baxter and Dupont evened things up at 10-all. The Bears took a single point lead on an error from Webster, but the Gorloks scored the next five points to take the commanding lead. The Bears trailed 24-18 before scoring four straight points to tighten things up until Webster's Emi Beining closed the set out with a kill.
Webster carried the momentum from the previous set into the fourth, scoring four points on kills en route to taking a 5-2 lead. The Bears battled back to even things up behind a Webster error and two Ifeoma Ufondu kills.
The Bears wiped out two consecutive points by Webster with a 7-3 run, which put WashU ahead 15-11. Sheredy totaled three kills on the run with seniors Dupont and Amanda Palucki also contributing one apiece.
A four-point gap was maintained until the Gorloks knotted things up at 18-all behind two kills from Webster's Macee Owen. WashU head coach Vanessa Walby responded to the run with a timeout.
Following the timeout, the Bears closed the match out by scoring seven of the final 10 points. Dupont had the final strike for the decisive match point which improved the Bears winning streak to a season-high four matches.
Sheredy and Dupont both finished the match with 14 kills apiece, while Sheredy's .400 hitting percentage led the Bears as well. Julianne Malek, Ufondu, and Palucki contributed 18 kills combined while freshman setter Chloe Stilechurned out 40 assists. Stile also added three kills.
The Bears finished the match with 11 blocks total, including 20 block assists. Dupont tallied six block assists and the lone solo block for the Bears while Malek and Palucki each added four block assists.
Baxter, Sheredy and Natalie Stephanus topped double-digit dig totals. Baxter led both teams with 14 total.