The William and Mary volleyball team played its longest match of the season so far on Friday night, falling on the road at Elon in five sets, 3-2. The Tribe is now 2-9 in league play, 6-20 overall, while the Phoenix improved to 6-21 and 1-10 in the CAA.
Box ScoreJunior captain
Dessi Koleva (Torrance, Calif.) led all players in the match with 19 kills, and also had a double-double with 16 more digs. Koleva also added in a team-high two aces. Freshman
Sydney Biniak (Elkridge, Md.) had 16 kills to her credit, adding in three blocks and four digs off the bench, and junior
Mallory Brickerd (Ashburn, Va.) had eight kills and a pair of blocks.
Also notable was the play of freshman
Paige Humphrey (Oak Hill, Va.), who had four kills and three blocks on a .444 attack, and senior
Liz Brown (Ellicott City, Md.) added in five kills. Sophomore
Gabrielle Pe (Virginia Beach, Va.) disched out 19 assists and nine digs to go with a service ave, and classmate
Stephanie Paul (North Bethesda, Md.) made 11 assists and five digs.
Junior
Carolyn Albright (Raleigh, N.C.) led W&M with five blocks, surpassing 300 in her career with the very first one. Freshman
Sara Zumbach (Franklin, Tenn.) had a match-high 19 digs to go with eight assists and an ace, and classmate
Austyn Ames (Wichita, Kan.) also had eight assists with six digs. Junior
Olivia Jebb (Cornwall, N.Y.) had five digs and a service ace, and redshirt-sophomore
Jenna Strange (Leesburg, Va.) made another service ace and a pair of digs.
After Elon took the first set, 30-28, despite seven kills from Koleva, the Tribe bounced back in the second 25-23 behind seven more kills by Biniak. A tough third set went to Elon, 25-21, before W&M cruised to a 25-19 win in the fourth, with Koleva scoring six and Biniak another five to force the fifth-set tiebreak. In that fifth set, Elon got in front quickly early, and was able to withstand two charges from the Tribe that closed to within two points and 9-7 and again at 13-11. The Phoenix ended up winning the set and the match, 15-11.
William and Mary is back in action on Sunday, playing at UNCW at 1 p.m.
