POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – On Wednesday evening, the Vassar College women's volleyball team concluded its five-match homestand by welcoming Bard to Kenyon Hall. And the Brewers closed the string with their fourth straight victory. Vassar (12-6, 4-1 Liberty) led from the start and hit a blistering .318 (41 kills, 14 errors, 85 attempts) as a team in a 25-19, 25-11, 25-10 triumph over the Raptors (6-13, 0-5 Liberty).
Vassar got kills from
Devan Gallagher (San Francisco, CA) and
Lauren Ninkovich (Portland, OR) to open the match, and the Brewers quickly extended their lead to 11-4. The Raptors pulled within 14-9 before Vassar used another 4-1 spurt to build an 18-10 cushion and prompt a Bard timeout. However, Bard scored the next four points after the timeout to once again trim the margin to four, 18-14.
Sara Ehnstrom (Kaneohe, HI) responded with a kill, though, and the Brewers wrapped up a 25-19 set win.
Bard scored the first point of the second set, but Vassar claimed 12 of the next 14 to build a 12-3 advantage. After back-to-back points by the Raptors, the Brewers rattled off 11 of the next 12, with
Jorden Schreeder's (Saratoga, CA) service ace capping the run and making it 23-6. Vassar took the set by a 25-11 count to go up 2-0 in the match.
In the third set, the Raptors again took the first point before the Brewers responded with four in a row. After a pair of Bard points cut the Vassar lead to 4-3, a
Jennifer Kerbs (Sacramento, CA) kill ignited a 15-3 rally that made it 19-6. Bard scored the next three points to pull within 19-9, but Vassar responded with a 4-0 spurt of its own to extend the cushion to 23-9. Gallagher then smashed a pair of kills to end the set, 25-10, and the match, 3-0. The Brewers hit .400 in the third set, pounding 15 kills while making just five errors in 25 swings.
Gallagher recorded her third straight double-double for the Brewers, finishing with 14 kills on .478 hitting to go along with 14 digs.
Claire Basler-Chang (Amherst, MA), meanwhile, had her 10 kills for her first career double-digit effort. Kerbs hit .750 in the match, slamming six kills without an error in eight attempts.
Madison Wilson (Plano, TX) made her first career start at setter and handed out 32 assists while also serving three aces. Ninkovich registered three aces of her own, as Vassar tallied 11 aces as a team. The Brewers also held a 52-28 advantage in digs, with
Lena Stevens (Aiea, HI) posting nine digs and
Anna Zucchero (Newton, MA) added eight.
Storm Bookhard had four kills and six digs for Bard. She also served a pair of aces. Jewel Smith was credited with 10 assists to go along with a team-best seven digs. The Raptors hit .000 (14-14-80) as a team.
The Brewers, who moved into a tie for second place in the Liberty League with the victory, will take a break from conference play this weekend. Vassar will play a pair of contests at Swarthmore on Saturday, taking on the host Garnet (12-4) at 2 p.m., followed by a matchup with No. 25 Johns Hopkins (15-3) at 4 p.m.
