The tenacious William and Mary volleyball team gave defending conferenc champions College of Charleston all it handle Friday night, taking the first set and producing late heroics in every set before being edged, 3-1.  The Tribe moves to 4-13 (0-2 CAA) on the year, while the Cougars lead the league at 11-7, 3-0 in conference play.

Box Score

Once again this season, the junior class provided the power to the Tribe's engines.  Mallory Brickerd (Ashburn, Va.) led the team with 12 kills, and also chipped in a pair of blocks and three digs.  Captain Dessi Koleva (Torrance, Calif.) had her third-straight double-double with 10 kills and 15 digs to go with three more blocks, and fellow captain Carolyn Albright (Raleigh, N.C.) had a match-high seven blocks to go with four kills.  Koleva now has 754 digs in her career, and is just three kills shy of 700 in that category.  Redshirt-sophomore Michelle Heath (Rustburg, Va.) added 10 kills, five digs, and two blocks to round out the class.

Also of note, setters Austyn Ames (Wichita, Kan.) and Stephanie Paul (North Bethesda, Md.) had matching double-doubles of 17 assists and 10 digs.  Ames is tied with Koleva with the team lead this season, with double-doubles apiece.  Senior Monika Stanciauskas (Wheaton, Ill.) came off the bench to provide a spark in the final two sets, and finishing with five blocks and three kills on a .500 attack.  Freshman Sydney Biniak (Elkridge, Md.) paired four kills and four blocks, and classmate Paige Humphrey (Oak Hill, Va.) had three kills and two more blocks.  Freshman Sara Zumbach (Franklin, Tenn.) had her most successful outing of the season, picking up a match-high 25 digs and also scoring a service ace.

W&M came out strong in the first set, going up 5-1 early before the Cougars began clawing their way back.  Charleston would gain ties at 7-7 and 8-8, but another 4-0 run for the Tribe (featuring a pair of kills by Heath) forced a timeout at 12-8, and Charleston never got closer than one the rest of the way.  That one time came very soon, 12-11, but Heath steadied her teammates with another kill, and the end-game saw W&M take six of the last seven points, capped by a kill from Humphrey for the 25-17 win.

In the second set, it was the Cougars who had a big run early to break open a tight set, and while the Tribe was able to piece together small 3-1 and 4-1 runs, it was not enough to catch all the way up as the visitors won 25-20.  That was also the score in the third, though it was arrived at by a different path.  Charleston again opened up a big lead early, but W&M twice was able to erase it, first with a 5-1 streak keyed off Brickerd (two kills, one block with Albright), and the second with with a 4-0 jag dominated by Albright who had a kill to start and both a solo block and a second block next to Biniak that tied the match 10-10.  After the Cougars eked back out by two points, W&M brought Stanciauskas in off the bench, and she provided an immediate lift with a kill and two blocks with Biniak to cap a 5-0 run and a 16-13 lead.  The fifth-year senior also provided a short lead at 17-16, but Charleston's veteran leaders were slowly able to warp momentum back in their favor to win the set.

In the fourth and final set, it look for a brief time like the visitors would be able to run away with the match, gain a six-point lead at 20-13.  The captains put the Tribe on their backs, however, with a kill by Koleva and three straight blocks by Albright (two alongside Koleva, one next to Brickerd) helped cut the deficit to just one, 20-19.  The Cougars put another on the board to regain a two-point edge, but Koleva and Brickerd dropped in another kill each to complete the comeback 21-21.  Charleston and Brickerd traded kills again to reach 22-22, but two straight kills for the bad guys had W&M down two at match-point, 24-22.  Heath reached 10 kills on the night to stave off elimination, 24-23, before Charleston's all-conference right-side hitter finished the match with a final kill.

William and Mary will have another chance to get on the winning side of the ledger Saturday night, hosting Elon at 7 p.m.