The William and Mary volleyball team put up a terrific fight Saturday night at George Mason, setting or tying six career-best performances despite falling 3-1 on the road. The Tribe is now 5-8 on the year, while the Patriots improved to 7-7 and 2-0 in the Colonial Athletic Association.
Leading the way for W&M was senior Brooke Bauernfeind (Ashburn, Va.), who hit a career-best .342 while collecting 18 kills, another career-high. Both numbers also led all players in the night's match. Redshirt-freshman Paulette Grand Pre (Laguna Beach, Va.) had a double-double of 10 kills and a career-best 13 digs, and added both a block and an ace to her point total.
Also setting career-best marks were a trio including redshirt-freshman Monika Stanciauskas (Wheaton, Ill.), who tied her best total with 11 kills while adding four blocks and an ace. Junior Shaylin O'Connell (Leesburg, Va.) led the Tribe with six blocks, including a career-best two solo efforts, and also had nine kills. Freshman Carolina Rivas (Orlando, Fla.) dished out 51 assists, and also had a hand in a career-best four blocks on the night.
Rounding out the notable individual performances, redshirt-freshman Devin Andrews-Lyssy (Santa Rosa, Calif.) had 18 digs as the Tribe's libero, and junior Molly Krull (Raleigh, N.C.) added eight more. Sophomore Julia Swalchick (Melbourne, Fla.) had a strong positive impact both on offense and defense, with eight kills and five digs.
After falling in the first set 25-20, the Tribe was strongly in every subsequent set, forcing ties late and making the older and deeper Patriots work to win their points. The second set found W&M down 19-14, but Bauernfeind and Stanciauskas began adding kills in rotation and powered W&M to an 8-3 run that knotted the set 22-22. George Mason would claim the next three points to go ahead 2-0 in the match score, but not before Swalchick and Stanciauskas had scored five kills each and Bauernfeind added four more.
Coming out of the itnermission, W&M took control of the third set with another strong run from the same exact situation. Down 19-14, sophomore Alexandra Ciaccio (Houston, Texas) scored a kill and Stanciauskas and Rivas combined for a block on the next point, igniting an 11-3 run that won the set 25-22. Rivas and O'Connell each had three of their blocks in that run alone. The fourth set's run for W&M came earlier, a 10-3 streak to erase an early GMU lead, and the Tribe would come back again to tie the set 21-21 before Mason's senior-dominated squad were able to pull away for the win.
William and Mary will finally put a close on its season-opening road swing next weekend with a trip through the CAA's southern tier. The Tribe will be in Wilmington, North Carolina Friday night at 7 p.m. to face the UNCW Seahawks, before continuing on to Atlanta, Georgia, and the Georgia State Panthers Sunday at 1 p.m.
