The William and Mary volleyball team put together its best offensive effort of the season Sunday at Georgia State, shouldering the Panthers aside en route to a 3-1 win.  The Tribe improves to 11-9 overall and evens its record at 3-3 in the CAA, while GSU falls to 3-14 and 1-5 in the league.

Box Score

W&M set season-highs on the afternoon in kills, assists, and digs, led by the superb marshaling of senior captain Molly Krull (Raleigh, N.C.).  The accounting major distributed 35 assists to her teammates, helping lead the Tribe to an efficient .241 attack, and also provided 12 digs on defense for her fourth double-double of the year.  Sophomore setter Carolina Rivas (Orlando, Fla.) also did her part in directing the offense, spreading 22 assists around and adding six more digs.

The main beneficiaries of the setters' prowess were sophomore Manon Murray (Greensboro, N.C.) and redshirt-freshman Liz Brown (Ellicott City, Md.), who both racked up 15 kills.  Murray's kills came on a .238 attack, and she also picked up a double-double with 12 digs alongside two aces and a block.  Brown was the more efficent one, achieving her 15 while hitting .367, and also had a hand in a block.  Senior middle Shaylin O'Connell (Leesburg, Va.) returned to her early-season form in a big way, scoring 13 kills on a .545 attack, and tied for the team-lead with four blocks.

Other offensive standouts on the day included junior Alexandra Ciaccio (Houston, Texas), who had eight kills and matched O'Connell with four blocks.  Redshirt-sophomore Paulette Grand Pre (Laguna Beach, Calif.) just missed a double-double with nine kills and 19 digs, hitting .400 in the process.  Freshman middle Carolyn Albright (Raleigh, N.C.) kept up with expectations by scoring six kills and two blocks, but also proved surprisingly adept at covering the court with five digs as well.  Rounding out the notable performers was redshirt-sophomore Devin Andrews-Lyssy (Santa Rosa, Calif.), who provided a team-best 20 digs.

The first set saw the teams post duelling three-point runs, round after round, and extended deep into extra points.  O'Connell and Brown tied the score for the final time at 27-27, but the host Panthers got a kill and a block out of Andrea Book to take the set, 29-27.  Coming out for the second set, the Tribe was on fire early and forced GSU to burn both of its time-outs after racing to a 15-5 lead.  W&M never let them get closer than eight the rest of the way, and got kills from five different players before Grand Pre capped the 25-13 win with an ace.

If the Tribe's .370 attack in the second set was impressive, then hitting .486 with 20 kills in the third was just plain incredible.  Once again, the Panthers were forced to burn both of their timeouts early, thanks to an 8-3 run that included two kills each from O'Connell and Ciaccio and pinpoint-passing from Rivas.  Up 17-10, Krull took over both the serve and the setting duties to direct the Tribe to a set-clinching 8-1 streak that included three kills by Murray, and Grand Pre was once again there to put the punctuation on the 25-11 win, this time on a kill.

GSU seemed to have found its fight again in the early part of the fourth set, and used a strong defensive effort including four blocks to take a 12-10 lead.  The Tribe hadn't been doing itself any favors with seven attack errors to that point, but Grand Pre and O'Connell connected on Krull passes to tie the score at 12-12 and begin the comeback.  Starting with those two kills, W&M had 14 kills and just three errors the rest of the way.  Murray's kill on a pass from O'Connell gave the Tribe the lead and the momentum at 15-14, and the Green and Gold never relinquished either.  The final tie came at 20-20, but freshman Dessi Koleva (Torrance, Calif.) scored a kill to put W&M back on top, and Grand Pre scored three of the final four points (including the clincher once again) to win the set and match, 25-22.

William and Mary returns home next weekend for the first of a four-match homestand.  The Tribe will host UNCW (7-14, 0-6) at Kaplan Arena Saturday, Oct. 20, at 7 p.m.  The two teams have already met once this season, a 3-0 W&M win.