The William and Mary volleyball team thrilled the crowd in Fairfax this evening, pushing past East Tennessee State 3-2 at the Patriot Invitational.  The Tribe improves to 3-2 with its second-straight win, while the Buccaneers fell to 1-3 on the year.

Box Score

The two teams were evenly matched all day, combining for 50 ties and swapping the lead 19 times, most crucially late in the fifth-set tiebreaker.  ETSU won the first and third sets, 26-24, but both times the Tribe responded with 25-20 wins to keep the match going.  In the fifth, W&M got its nose in front early on a kill by Michelle Heath (Rustburg, Va.), the first of four from her in the final set.  Heath's kill and a block from freshmen Paige Humphrey (Oak Hill, Va.) and Sydney Biniak (Elkridge, Md.) put the Tribe ahead 3-1, and while the Bucs would fight back to several ties, W&M remained in the advantage until an ETSU ace made it 10-9.

That swing keyed a 3-2 series for East Tennessee State to take a 13-11 lead, it's biggest of the set, and forced W&M to take its timeout.  Coming out of the break, Heath was on point with another kill, and freshman Austyn Ames (Wichita, Kan.) served out a big ace to tie the match 13-13 and force ETSU into a timeout.  Junior captain Dessi Koleva (Torrance, Calif.) stepped up to the plate at that point, and delivered a kill to return the lead and the advantage to the Tribe at 14-13.  The Bucs responded with a kill of their own for another tie, but Heath's final kill gave W&M a second match point, and Koleva and Carolyn Albright (Raleigh, N.C.) stuffed the final attempt for the 16-14 win and the match.

While other players were the ones to step up in the fifth, junior Mallory Brickerd (Ashburn, Va.) was the reason the Tribe got there, leading W&M for the second straight match with 22 kills, one shy of her career high.  Brickerd had five kills in the first set, six in the second, and a massive seven kills in the fourth set (out of 10 total for W&M in that frame).  She hit .333 in getting her 22, and also had six digs, an ace, and a solo block.  Heath also reached double-digits with 11 kills, and added 12 digs for a double-double.

Biniak had seven kills on her afternoon, and a season-high five blocks with two coming in the final set.  Her classmate Humphrey was her partner on both of those fifth-set blocks, and led all players with six total blocks on the afternoon to go with six kills.  Koleva also had six kills, and added in 15 digs and three blocks.  Albright spread five blocks around the match, and had three kills against no errors.

Away from the net, sophomore Gabrielle Pe (Virginia Beach, Va.) did as much as Brickerd to kept the Tribe on track to win, with a season-best 26 digs and six assists.  She had eight of her digs in the fourth set alone, after providing seven in the third.  Ames, playing on her birthday, had a double-double of 15 assists and 11 digs, as well as a pair of service aces in the final two sets.  Her partner at setter, sophomore Stephanie Paul (North Bethesda, Md.), dished out 27 assists to go with nine digs and an ace.  The line-up was completed by defensive specialists junior Olivia Jebb (Cornwall, N.Y.) and freshman Sara Zumbach (Franklin, Tenn.), who each had three digs.  Zumbach added in a solo assist in her collegiate debut.

William and Mary is back in action Saturday morning, playing Lehigh at 10 a.m.  Just four hours later, at 2 p.m., the Tribe will take on George Mason in the final match of the week.