The New York University women's volleyball team hosted the first day of the University Athletic Association (UAA) Round Robin #1 on Saturday, October 3. The round robin is being held from Saturday to Sunday at the Jerome S. Coles Sports Center in Manhattan.
The Violets (9-9, 0-2 UAA) began with a three-set loss (25-20, 25-17, 25-14) to Washington University-St. Louis (16-1, 2-0), who is ranked #2 in the most recent America Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) poll. NYU followed up with another match against a ranked opponent, #16 University of Chicago (14-4, 2-0). The Violets were able to take one set against the Maroons, but ultimately fell in four (25-20, 21-25, 25-21, 25-18).
"There's a lot of good things we can take from today's two matches," said NYU Head Coach
Jolie Ward. "I think that we fared very well in competition. But, I believe that with us being a young team the focus starts to fall off a little because of the high intensity level that we have early on in our matches. The teams we're playing, because they are so experienced, they have that intensity throughout. But, as a young team it tapers off for us toward the end and that's what it came down to."
Shelby King (eight kills and five digs) and
Daryl Mitchell (23 assists, eight digs and four kills) led NYU against the Bears. Against Chicago,
Rayne Ellis (eight kills, four blocks) shined for the Violets, while Mitchell (33 assists, 12 digs, three blocks) and King (10 kills, eight digs) stood out once more.
MATCH ONE HIGHLIGHTS:-
Brooke Tannahill led all players with a match-high 15 digs.
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Celine Das tied for second on NYU with eight digs.
- Ellis notched five kills.
MATCH TWO HIGHLIGHTS:- Ellis added two aces against the Maroons.
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Alexis Jackson led NYU with a team-best 11 kills.
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Patricia Stirb finished with eight kills, four digs and four blocks.
- Tannahill led the Violets and tied the match high with 21 digs.
"I'm proud of what we did today," continued Ward. "I'm hoping that what we gave to those two teams as far as how we competed, will help us tomorrow and we can build off of it. That way we can use our momentum efficiently in tomorrow's match."
The Violets will return to action tomorrow for the second and final day of the UAA Round Robin #1. NYU will face the University of Rochester (10-9, 0-2) at 10:00 am.
