St. Lawrence Box Score

Union Box Score

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (November 6, 2009) – Host Vassar College showed poise on its home turf, winning its first two matches at the Liberty League Women's Volleyball Championships on Friday evening at the Athletics & Fitness Center. The No. 2 Brewers opened play with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 25-20) win over No. 5 Union College and followed that up with a 3-1 (20-25, 25-15, 25-11, 25-18) victory against No. 3 Saint Lawrence University to remain the only unbeaten team in the tournament.

In other Liberty League Championship action, top seed Clarkson defeated Union, 3-1 (25-14, 25-22, 16-25, 26-24) and St. Lawrence downed No. 4 Skidmore 3-1 (25-27, 25-21, 25-16, 25-20) in the 6:00 p.m. matches. However, the Thoroughbreds rebounded to knock off top seed Clarkson, 3-0 (28-26, 25-23, 25-21) in the night game. Clarkson, Skidmore, and St. Lawrence all enter Saturday's play with a 1-1 record, while Union is 0-2. Click here for the complete Liberty League Championship results.

Vassar vs. St. Lawrence
Vassar lost its first set of the tournament 20-25 to open up its match against No. 3 St. Lawrence, but came back in the next three games to knock off the Saints 20-25, 25-15, 25-11, 25-18.

St. Lawrence surprised Vassar with a quick 4-0 start in the opening set, and never let Vassar pull ahead. The Brewers tied the score at eight on an ace by junior Chelsea Mottern, but St. Lawrence came right back with three straight points to take the lead for good. St. Lawrence got five kills from sophomore Nyasha Miller in the 25-20 win.

As if reenergized by the sting of a loss, Vassar started the second set with a vengeance, and a bit of luck. Senior Sarah Potts aced the first two serves of the set, both of which hit the tape and dropped over the net untouched. Vassar also took the next two points, and captured the momentum along with its 4-0 lead.

St. Lawrence cut the Vassar lead to two by making the score 5-7 and later 13-15, but the Brewers held off both comeback attempts and finished with a flourish. After a Saints' service error made the score 16-13, Vassar tallied five straight points behind the service of freshman Hilary Koenigs, and then scored four of the next six to win 25-15.

Vassar's offensive attack was even more efficient in the third set. The teams traded possession for the first ten points, but Vassar turned a 6-4 lead into an 11-4 lead with an ace, two kills and a block. Two points later, the Brewers went on another 5-0 run to open up a 16-5 lead. St. Lawrence responded with a 4-0 run of its own, but Vassar's offense was too potent to be stopped, and cruised to a 25-11 win.

St. Lawrence took leads of 4-2, 8-4 and 10-7 in the fourth set, but a Vassar comeback run in the middle of the set put the Brewers in the driver's seat to take the match. After a Mottern kill cut the Saints lead to 10-8, senior Jasmin Iskandar served four straight points for Vassar, including one ace, to give her team a 12-10 lead. Another 3-0 run two points later put the Brewers ahead 15-11, and St. Lawrence would not get any closer than four for the remainder of the set.

Freshman Chloe McGuire led Vassar with 14 kills and no attack errors, while senior Tess Johnson and sophomore Amy Bavosa had nine and seven kills respectively. Mottern recorded 22 digs, McGuire added 15, and Koenigs had 36 assists and 11 digs.

St. Lawerence was led by Miller's nine kills and Katherine Pierce contributed 21 digs. Abby Rose added 15 digs and led the Saints with 23 assists.

Vassar vs. Union
In the opening match of the Liberty League Volleyball tournament, the host was dominant, as second-seeded Vassar defeated fifth-seeded Union in three sets, 25-18, 25-16 and 25-20.

Vassar was the aggressor early on, following an attack error with five straight points to take a 5-1 lead in the first set. The Brewers went up 7-2 three points later on a Union reception error, and the Dutchwomen would not get closer than five points for the rest of the set.

Vassar's largest lead was eight, which it took when Johnson's kill made the score 24-16. Johnson finished off the first game three points later with her third kill of the game.

The second set started out 3-3, but Vassar took a 7-3 lead on four straight Union errors. The Brewers were unable to expand that lead, as Union's three 6-foot tall hitters, Eve Richards, Rachel Ormsby and Jordan Remillard, caused havoc in front of the net. Ormsby had consecutive kills and a block assist during one stretch, and Union was helped by two Vassar return errors to tie the game at 12.

Union took its first lead of the match 15-14 on another Vassar return error, but the Brewers inched back on top to take an 18-16 lead off a kill by Bavosa. That brought Koenigs to the service line, and Koenigs tallied seven straight points, including an ace that hit the tape and dropped untouched over the net to finish off the game, for the 25-16 win.

Vassar's efficiency sputtered a bit in set three. The Brewers made nine errors – compared to ten in the first two games combined – and maintained a one or two point lead for the majority of the game. The Dutchwomen took a 10-9 lead after three straight Brewer errors, and the game was tied at 11, 15, 18 and 19. However, Vassar yet again finished the game on a 5-1 run, and capped off the match with another Johnson kill.

Johnson led Vassar with 12 kills and only two errors, while McGuire added ten kills and a team-high 11 digs. Koenigs had 34 assists, Bavosa had nine kills, and Mottern had 10 digs.

Union was led by Ormsby's seven kills. Veronica Mynders tallied 17 digs, and Kimberly Armstrong had 14 assists.