The William and Mary volleyball team put together several strong individual performances Friday night, but was unable to get by Delaware in a 3-0 setback at Kaplan Arena.  The Tribe is now 7-11 overall and 1-4 in the Colonial Athletic Association, while the Blue Hens improved to 11-11 and 4-2 in the league.

Leading the way for the College was strong play in the middle of the net, as redshirt-freshman Monika Stanciauskas (Wheaton, Ill.) and sophomore Alexandra Ciaccio (Houston, Texas) combined to hit 17 kills with just two errors.  Stanciauskas led the team with 10 kills, hitting .429 in the process and adding two blocks and a service ace.  Ciaccio hit .545 with seven kills on just 11 attempts, and also had a part of one block.

Also of note, sophomore Celine Alasomuka (Centreville, Va.) had 17 digs, and redshirt-freshman Paulette Grand Pre (Laguna Beach, Calif.) added 15 digs to go with six kills.  Sophomore Julia Swalchick (Melbourne, Fla.) had seven kills, eight digs, and a hand in two blocks.  Freshman setter Carolina Rivas (Orlando, Fla.) rounded out the notables with 32 assists, five digs, four kills, and a pair of solo blocks.

After falling in the first two sets 25-16 and 25-19, the Tribe came out in the third set and things looked bleak as Delaware immediately raced out to an early lead.  The College again showed its tremendous grit as it has so many times this season, however, and battled back over the course of every rally and every sideout, finally tying the set at 23-23.  Rivas made her second solo block of the night on the next point, and put her team at 24-23.  Delaware was abe to fight off two set points, however, and was able to capitalize on a Tribe mistake to flip the advantage and sit at match point.  Grand Pre provided a kill to stave off elimination, but a final kill and one last block from the Blue Hens were able to decide the match.

William and Mary hosts Towson tomorrow night, again at 7 p.m. in Kaplan Arena.