The New York University women's volleyball team opened postseason play at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship on Saturday, November 15, in Waltham, MA.
The Violets began the day by defeating #13-ranked Emory, 21-25, 25-21, 26-24, 28-26. After the win over the third-seeded Eagles, the Violets matched up with #17 WashU, who came into the tournament as the number two seed. The Violets fell to the Bears, 25-18, 25-21,25-21.
In a tightly-contested opening-round match, NYU dropped the first set to the Eagles, but bounced back and took a 21-10 lead in the second set. An eight-point run from the Eagles brought the score to 21-18, but NYU never wavered, securing the set on a kill from
Chloe Hynes.
The Violets overcame an early 9-3 deficit in the third set after finally closing the gap and taking their first lead of the set at 20-19. After the final tie at 24-24,
Jessica Spierenburg earned the final two points for the Violets with a crucial kill and service ace to close out the stanza.
In a tight fourth set, NYU trailed closely behind Emory the entire way until a service ace from
Helena Foord gave the Violets a 25-24 lead. The set was knotted at 26-26 before the match ended at the service line from an Eagles error and a Hynes ace.
Coco Barton tallied 10 kills to go along with six blocks.
Duru Topcu and
Grace Nelson led the team with 10 digs apiece, while Nelson added nine kills.
After falling to the Bears in the opener, the Violets fought off a 16-10 deficit in the second set by rattling off eight consecutive points. Despite the late surge, the Violets were unable to complete the comeback and dropped the second stanza.
NYU then fell to WashU after losing the third and final set.
Casey Cho recorded 10 kills while
Chloe Lemons added eight alongside 11 digs.
Ava Launsbach recorded 21 assists to follow up a 25-assist performance in the first match.
The Violets return to action tomorrow as they compete in the third-place match against the number-one seed, University of Chicago, on Sunday, November 16, at 9:30 am.
