TOWSON, MD - The William and Mary volleyball team rallied on the road Friday night at Towson, coming back from falling in the fourth set to hit .579 in the fifth and cruise to a 3-2 victory in conference play. With the win, the Tribe evens its record at 8-8 overall and 2-2 in the CAA, while the Tigers fall to 12-9 and 0-4 in the league.

Box Score

W&M was led on the night by four players who set or tied career highs, including senior Ginny Bray (Cary, N.C.). Bray continued her recent string of outstanding performances with a match-high 16 kills while hitting .406, and tied her career-best with eight block-assists. Her teammate in the middle on the night was sophomore Shaylin O'Connell (Leesburg, Va.), who set career highs in kills (11), attacks (23), hitting percentage (.391), and digs (four).

Sophomore Gina Lang (Valparaiso, Ind.) had a career-high 15 kills on 34 attempts, and also had a career-best four blocks to go with eight digs. Freshman Celine Alasomuka (Centreville, Va.) broke the 30-dig barrier for the first time with 31 digs on the night, which is the 15th-best total in school history and second-most ever by a freshman (38 against VCU by Kathleen Hawley in 2003). Alasomuka also matched her career-best with three aces on the night.

Other notable performances included from senior setter Cassie Crumal (Castle Rock, Colo.), who had a great all-around effort with 45 assists, 13 digs, four kills, and three blocks. Junior Lindsay Kresch (Moon Township, Pa.) had 11 kills on the night, and added eight dig, one block, and one service ace.

After the host team claimed the first set 25-20 in spit of eight kills from Lang, William and Mary rallied in the second and third sets with scores of 25-18 and 25-22 to take a 2-1 lead in the match. As action in the fourth set picked up, the Tribe took a slim lead early at 6-4, but the Tigers responded with three straight points to take a lead that they would never relinquish. Towson slowly built its lead, reaching 23-16, before a Tribe rally started by senior Erin Skipper (Yorktown, Va.) rolled together a 5-1 run and cut the lead to 24-21. Towson was able to pick up the final point in the set and knot the match at 2-2, forcing the fifth and final set with momentum seemingly on their side.

The first few points of the final set looked to reinforce that opinion, as the Tigers scored two of the first three points and had the set tied at 3-3, but Crumal's precision passing and a big block by Lang and Bray to make it 5-3 in favor of the Tribe swung the needle back in favor of the Green and Gold, where it would firmly remain. W&M ran off five straight points to go up 8-3, and after a final point for Towson, closed out the match with a dominating seven-point streak capped with another block by Crumal and Bray on match point. For the final set, W&M hit an astonishing .579 with 11 kills and no errors, while Alasomuka had seven digs to help hold Towson to just three kills and four errors on 22 attempts.

William and Mary is back in action Saturday night at 6 p.m., as the Tribe takes on Delaware (14-5, 3-1 CAA) in the Blue Hens' home gym.