From Washington University Athletics
The No. 10 Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team earned a hard-fought comeback 3-2 victory over Millikin University in the NCAA First Round at the Grand Rapids Regional on Thursday.
WashU won the match 25-19, 19-25, 24-26, 25-23, 16-14 as the Bears advanced on to tomorrow's NCAA Regional semifinal against Hope at 5:30 p.m. ET.
Furthermore, WashU collects its 30th win of the season (30-5), marking the first time they've reached 30 wins in a single-season since 2015.
Behind a team-combined effort of 57 kills, sophomore Jasmine Sells led the way, matching her career-high with 18 kills.
"I give it all to the team, we showed a lot of grit," said Sells. "Above everything else, our team was really positive and our bench was amazing. It was a great effort and a great team win and everyone did a phenomenal job of staying positive."
Along with Sells, Lane Bohrer also registered a double-double on the day with 17 kills and 17 digs.
The Bears are no strangers to five-set matches, as they have already played four this season, including their 3-2 win over Carnegie Mellon less than a week ago at the UAA Championships.
"Those situations are something that we've grown a lot into this year," Bohrer stated. "We were all looking forward to it and we wanted the ball to have a chance to win it in the end."
In addition, Michaela Bach also posted a double-double of 10 kills and 16 digs, while Zoe Foster added five kills and two blocks.
Defensively, Taryn Gurbach compiled a team-best 23 digs, while Elise Gilroy recorded 14.
First-year setter Sam Buckley played great and tallied over 50 assists for the third time this season, finishing with 52 and also 11 digs.
WU got off to a hot start, hitting .233 in the first set, as it quickly pulled ahead 6-2 through the first eight points. The Big Blue would use a 12-8 scoring run to even up the match at 14-14, but the Bears would take advantage of a 9-3 run to hold a 23-17 lead.
The Bears won the final two points in the frame to take it 25-19.
Millikin came out swinging in the second set and took an early 9-3 lead as the Bears tried to shake off a slow start.
However, the Big Blue would extend their lead out to 20-14 moments later looking to even up the match.
WashU sliced the lead down to 21-18 but it was too little too late, as MU would claim five of the final six points in the set to win it 25-19.
In the third, WashU and Millikin battled it out to the end. With 14 ties and nine lead changes neither team were able to pull away from each other.
The Bears took back the lead at 17-16 looking to regain the momentum, but the Big Blue answered back with four consecutive points.
WashU recovered nicely though and were in great shape holding a 24-22 advantage. However, it was Millikin who would pull out a third-set win at 26-24.
WU needed to stay alive in the fourth set, but the Bears once again got off to a slow start and found themselves trailing 16-9.
Millikin was still out in front at 19-15 before the Bears made their run, as they came in clutch closing out the set on a 10-4 run.
It was another fantastic back-and-forth battle in the fifth and final set. Trailing 9-7, WashU bounced back with a quick 3-0 to push ahead 10-9.
Dead even at 13-13, the Bears got to match point following a service error. MU would not go down easily though and held off match point to even the score at 14-14.
To close out the match, WU went back to Bohrer who was red hot on the night, as she recorded back-to-back kills to seal the victory.