The William and Mary volleyball team picked up its first conference win of the year Saturday night, over-powering Elon in all phases of the game en route to a 3-1 victory.  With the win, the Tribe improves to 5-13 overall and 1-3 in the CAA, while the Phoenix fall to 5-14, 0-4 in league action.

Box Score

With such a strong team result, individual accomplishments were likewise numerous all across the line-up.  Leading the way was junior captain Dessi Koleva (Torrance, Calif.) who posted her CAA-leading fourth-straight double-double with 17 kills and 13 digs, hitting .368 in the process.  She is the only player in the league with four double-doubles through the first two weeks, and she also achieved a major milestone surpassing 700 kills for her career (now with 714).  Koleva is the eighth player in school history with more than 700 kills and 750 digs, and the first to do so since 2002.

Also of note was junior Mallory Brickerd (Ashburn, Va.), who had 14 kills on a .265 attack as well as seven digs and four blocks.  Brickerd now has exactly 500 kills in her career.  Freshman Austyn Ames (Wichita, Kan.) had a career-high 22 assists to go with eight digs and an ace, and sophomore Stephanie Paul (North Bethesda, Md.) had a double-double with 19 assists, 12 digs, two aces, and a kill.

On defense, W&M got two several more big performances.  Junior captain Carolyn Albright (Raleigh, N.C.) had a match-high six blocks to go with six kills on a .462 attack, and freshman libero Sara Zumbach (Franklin, Tenn.) had a career-best 29 digs.  Sophomore Gabrielle Pe (Virginia Beach, Va.) also had 17 digs to go with a service ace.  Senior Liz Brown (Ellicott City, Md.) had seven kills and three blocks, and freshman Paige Humphrey (Oak Hill, Va.) had two more blocks to go with three kills.  Rounding out the notables was redshirt-sophomore Michelle Heath (Rustburg, Va.), who had five kills and a hand in a block.

W&M took control of the first set with a 6-0 run early to make it 9-4, and followed that with a 5-2 run to stretch the lead to 15-8.  The Tribe never let Elon get back into contention, holding the visitors comfortably at arms-length before a block by Heath, Albright, and Brown finished the win at 25-14.  The Tribe hit .387 with 14 kills in the set, including seven by Koleva, while Zumbach had nine digs and Pe seven to keep the Phoenix off of the scoreboard.

The second set went to Elon, 25-22, despite an 8-2 Tribe run and 10 digs from Zumbach.  The Phoenix took a 21-18 lead late, forcing a timeout from W&M, before two kills by Brown and another by Koleva cut the deficit to one at 23-22.  A block and a final kill by Elon took the win, and evened the match at 1-1.  Coming out of the intermission, it was all Tribe, all the time, as W&M ran away to a 25-9 victory in the third.  Three big runs for the Green and Gold keyed the win, as W&M put together a 9-2 run to make it 12-4, 6-0 to go up 18-6, and finally 7-1 to finish things off with Koleva's fourth kill of the set.

W&M kept the momentum going in the fourth, starting with a 5-0 advantage out of the gate,  The lead kept building with small little 2- and 3-point spurts, as the Tribe went ahead 17-7 and on to the win at 25-16.  Brickerd had seven of her kills in the fourth set alone, and Zumbach provided eight more digs to finish her night strong as well.

William and Mary hits the road next weekend, facing Delaware Friday at 7 p.m. and Towson on Saturday at 7 p.m.