The William and Mary volleyball team got off to a roaring start Friday, sweeping Iona 3-0 in the first game of the Penn State Classic.  The Tribe improves to 1-0 on the year, while the Gaels fall to 0-1 overall.

Box Score

Leading the way for W&M was redshirt-sophomore Michelle Heath (Rustburg, Va.), who had a match-high 12 kills while hitting .370.  Heath also had five digs and three blocks on defense, as well as a service ace.  Junior Mallory Brickerd (Ashburn, Va.) was almost unstoppable on the attack, scoring 10 kills on a career-best .562 attack.  Two freshmen earned the starting nod, with Sydney Biniak (Elkridge, Md.) scoring four kills and no errors to go with a single block, and Paige Humphrey (Oak Hill, Va.) totaling three kills and two blocks.

The duo responsible for the Tribe's strong .308 hitting percentage were the setters, sophomore Stephanie Paul (North Bethesda, Md.) and freshman Austyn Ames (Wichita, Kan.).  Paul had 18 assists, eight digs, and an ace in the start, while Ames rotated in and collected a double-double with 15 assists and 10 digs of her own.  Sophomore Gabrielle Pe (Virginia Beach, Va.) also reached double-digit digs, picking up 12 to go with three assists and an ace.

Rounding out the notables were junior captains Dessi Koleva (Torrance, Calif.) and Carolyn Albright (Raleigh, N.C.).  Koleva neared a double-double with eight kills and a match-high 14 digs, while also scoring an ace and two blocks.  Albright had four kills coming off the bench, and a match-best five blocks.

The Tribe took control of the match right from the start, scoring six points in a row to force an early Iona timeout, and then tacked on two more points for good measure before the Gaels got on the board at 8-1.  The lead grew to 11 (16-5) on another 6-1 W&M run, and then to as many as 13 a short time later with the Tribe in front 22-9.  Iona was able to salvage a few more points, but kills by Humphrey and Heath in the final three points closed out the set, 25-14.

The second set started closer before the Tribe was able to build out to a sizeable lead, which grew as large as 22-14.  Iona then went on a run of their own, capitalize on a few W&M mistakes, and closed it down to 22-20.  Albright stopped the bleeding with a kill, and then paired with Brickerd on a block before Koleva sent the teams into the lockers with the punctuating kill at 25-20.  The third and final set went much the same way early, with Iona holding tough for a little while, but W&M built out its lead slowly, and with Biniak's last kill of the match to make it 12-5, never let the opponents get any closer the rest of the way.  Once again, it was up to Koleva to put the finishing touches on the set, scoring the Tribe's final two kills in the 25-16 win.

William and Mary is back in action on Saturday afternoon, playing TCU at 1 p.m. before facing host and No. 1-ranked Penn State at 7 p.m.