TRIBE SCRIBE: Tribe unable to finish it out in five-set loss to Delaware
By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics

In so many ways, William & Mary outplayed Delaware in Sunday afternoon's volleyball match at Kaplan Arena. In crunch time was not one of them.

Delaware came from behind to win the first and third sets and ran away with the fifth for a 3-2 victory at Kaplan Arena. Outside hitter Taylor Burrell had 21 kills with a .356 percentage and libero Anna Porter finished with 31 digs, but the Tribe lost a five-set match to the Blue Hens for the second day in a row.

"We dominated every single part of the game," W&M coach Tim Doyle said. "We hit better than them, we passed better than them, and we served better than them. But at the end of the day, they played better when it mattered.

"We couldn't side out when the game got tight, and Delaware played their best when they had to in those tight scenarios. That's what we have to learn. We can't run from big-time scenarios. We have to play bigger and better at those times."

The good news for W&M (11-11, 6-8) is that despite going 0-2 over the weekend, it secured no worse than the No. 8 seed in the CAA tournament. The Tribe finishes the regular season next weekend at fifth-place Northeastern.

Still, the Tribe knows it let one slip away Sunday afternoon. W&M led the first set 21-19 but gave up the final six points — the last five on Delaware's serve. The Tribe had leads of 23-20, 24-22 and 25-24 in the third set, but the Blue Hens closed with three consecutive points.

In set five, in which the first team to 15 points wins, Delaware jumped out to a 5-0 lead behind three of Lani Mason's 30 kills. Coming back from such a hole is tough enough in a 25-point set, and first-to-15 makes it almost impossible.

"When it's a quick game, you don't have time for errors like that," said Porter, whose 31 kills were one off her career high. "We have a point-to-point mentality on this team that you don't look at the score. All you can do is be good on this one point. We just couldn't execute that fast enough today.

"Ninety percent of the game we were in control of. It was just unfortunate we couldn't finish at the end. But going into the tournament, we can't have our heads down because we're playing great volleyball."

Eleanor Stothoff finished with 20 kills, seven coming as W&M took the second set, and five blocks. Sabrina Malcolm had 13 kills and four blocks. Amy Schwem finished with a season-high 38 assists and Emma Minnick added 26.

Porter was one of three seniors who played her final home match for the Tribe. She was joined by Sydney Taylor (eight kills, eight digs) and Kaitlyn Ferguson (six kills, one block).