RICHMOND – The William & Mary volleyball team dropped a 3-0 (16-25, 19-25, 19-25) decision to in-state rival VCU on Tuesday evening at the Stuart C. Siegel Center. With the setback, the Tribe is now 1-3, while the Rams move to 3-1.
Senior
Sydney Biniak led the Tribe offense for the third straight match after clubbing nine kills. She also added six digs and a pair of service aces. Sophomore
Casey Foote was next up as she generated six kills to go along with five digs. Freshmen
Julia Brown and
Kate Dedrick also earned four kills each. A couple more team leaders included sophomore
Autumn Brenner with 17 assists and freshman
Katie Turner behind seven digs.
VCU was in full control during the first set, but W&M bounced back and competed to the last point in the next two periods. In the second set, Dedrick crushed a kill and two VCU errors gave the Tribe a quick 3-1 advantage. Late in the frame, Biniak spiked three straight kills to narrow the Rams' advantage to 20-16. Rookie
Taylor Heishman and Dedrick stopped an attack to keep the Tribe within striking distance at 21-18, but VCU sparked a 4-1 run to take game two.
The third set followed the same pattern as both Foote and Dedrick penetrated the Rams' defense for an early 2-1 lead. The back-and-forth continued with Biniak and Brown denying a Gina Tuzzolo spike, which forced an 11-all tie. However, VCU's Tori Baldwin helped her squad gain separation by scoring five of the last six points courtesy of four kills and a block assist.
Notes
- The Rams improved its all-time series lead against the Tribe to 42-39.
- The Tribe held the Rams to a .121 attack percentage in the second set.
- Biniak two service aces and six digs are both season highs.
- Brown, Heishman and Biniak each assisted on a pair of blocks
Up Next
The Green and Gold open up its home schedule with a three-day tournament in the Colonial Classic on Sept. 1-3. The participating programs consist of Morehead State, Savannah State and Davidson. The Tribe will compete in a single match each day, starting with Morehead State (Sept 1., 7 PM) followed by Savannah State (Sept. 2, 12:30 PM) and then Davidson (Sept. 3, 11 AM)
