The William and Mary volleyball team came up just short on the road Tuesday night, winning the second set but falling 3-1 at Liberty.  The Tribe completes its season-opening road trip at 1-3, with all three losses coming to NCAA Tournament teams.

Box Score

Despite the loss, W&M had quite a few terrific individual performances, with four players recording double-digit kills and three with 10+ digs.  Leading the way was redshirt-sophomore Paulette Grand Pre (Laguna Beach, Calif.), who had a match-high 13 kills and 15 digs.  Freshman Dessi Koleva (Torrance, Calif.) also picked up a double-double, with 12 kills and 13 digs, and matched Grand Pre with two blocks apiece.  Classmate Carolyn Albright (Raleigh, N.C.) continued the strong start to her career, scoring 10 kills on a .333 attack and adding a team-high four kills.  Rounding out the quartet was sophomore Liz Brown (Ellicott City, Md.), who had 12 kills to go with four digs.

The Tribe also got strong performances out of its setters and defenders.  Senior captain Molly Krull (Raleigh, N.C.) dished out 36 assists and had six digs, while sophomore Carolina Rivas (Orlando, Fla.) had 16 more assists and added four digs during her rotations on the floor.  Redshirt-sophomore Devin Andrews-Lyssy (Santa Rosa, Calif.) collected a season-high 18 digs at libero, and junior Celine Alasomuka (Centreville, Va.) added eight more for the team effort.

The first set saw Liberty get ahead early, going up 18-10 at one point.  Coming out of a timeout, the Tribe got a kill from Grand Pre and embarked on an 8-3 run that narrowed the gap considerably, before the Flames were able to finish things out at 25-21.  In the second set, it was W&M's turn to get ahead early and stay there.  Beginning with a Liberty error that evened the set at 5-5, W&M earned 16 of the next 21 points for a 19-10 lead.  The host team tried to make a run late, but the Tribe never let them get closer than five before Brown hammered home a final kill for the 25-19 win.

In the third set, both teams had significant runs and traded a three-point lead back and forth, ending with the Flames clinging to a 24-21 advantage.  Brown began the work of erasing that lead with her fifth kill of the set, and after a Liberty error, Koleva knotted the score at 24-all with another tally.  Liberty was able to hold on for the win, though, scoring two quick points for the 26-24 victory.  The fourth set saw the Flames build themselves out to four- and seven-point leads, but the Tribe kept reeling them back in, trying to move ahead and force a fifth-set tiebreak.  The final run began with W&M facing a seven-point deficit, but Monika Stanciauskas (Wheaton, Ill.) and Grand Pre scored two kills apiece and a rattled Liberty squad committed two unforced errors to cut the lead to 21-19.  Brown and Albright each tried to continue the rally with final kills, but Liberty was able to collect themselves and finish off the match with a 25-21 win.

William and Mary returns home this weekend, hosting the Crowne Plaza Tribe Invitational on Friday and Saturday at Kaplan Arena.  The Tribe will host Manhattan, Campbell, and Georgetown in the round-robin tournament, which will begin at 4:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon and 10 a.m. on Saturday.  Live stats and Live video for all matches will be available on the web at TribeAthletics.com.