NYU vs. Case Western Box Score
NYU vs. Carnegie Mellon Box Score
The New York University women's volleyball team pulled out two thrilling five-set wins against Case Western Reserve University and Carnegie Mellon University to finish the first University Athletic Association (UAA) round robin on a high note on Sunday, October 3, on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta, GA.
“I was very proud of how the team performed today,” said interim head coach Chris Pinto. “To battle back and win back-to-back five-game matches in the UAA is huge for the team and should be a great building block for us moving forward.”
The Violets (21-3, 2-1 UAA), currently ranked #23 in the AVCA Division III Coaches Top 25 Poll, began the day against the Spartans of Case Western (14-5, 1-2 UAA). NYU took a two-sets-to-one lead in the match, but Case captured the fourth. However, NYU closed out the match 3-2 (21-25, 25-15, 25-22, 19-25, 15-10).
Leading the Violets in the victory was Erin McLaughlin, who tallied a match-high 18 kills along with 13 digs and a career-best seven service aces.
Kendyl Dunn continued her dominant play against the Spartans, putting down 17 kills while hitting .349 while a team-high six blocks including two solos.
Sally Downs and Jessica Prepolec also recorded double-digits kills, with Prepolec putting down 14 and Downs adding 11 while hitting .579.
On defense, Alexis Schwartz led the way with 21 digs. Mina Baban added a career-best 20 to go with a season-high 55 assists.
Also recording double-digit digs on defense were Hope Bogel (15) and Rachel Sawyer (14).
For the Spartans, Allie Palmer tallied 15 kills while Rachel Gulasey added a match-high 28 digs.
In the final match of the weekend, the Violets were forced to rally from 1-0 and 2-1 set deficits to force a fifth set. In the final frame, NYU once again had to rally, this time from a 8-4 deficit to pull out the match win against the Tartans (9-11, 0-3 UAA) 3-2 (23-25, 25-16, 20-25, 25-10, 15-13).
Dunn led the offense with a match-high 19 kills to go with two solo blocks and five digs.
Downs was also in double-digits with 13 kills while also adding two blocks and a service aces.
On defense, Schwartz led the way once again with 28 digs. Sawyer put up 22 along with two aces, while McLaughlin added 21 and eight kills.
For the Tartans, Caroline Size recorded 13 kills and Cameron Griffin added 21 digs.
The Violets return to action in two weeks when they travel to Brandeis University to take part in the second UAA round robin. NYU will face the other four teams in the UAA, the University of Chicago and host Brandeis on Saturday, October 16, and Washington University and the University of Rochester on Sunday, Oct. 17.
