Dartmouth Women's Volleyball Beats Cornell in Thriller

Friday, November 9

Hanover, N.H.

7:00 p.m.

Dartmouth College

CORNELL

Dartmouth Women's Volleyball Beats Cornell in Thriller

11/9/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. - The Dartmouth women's volleyball team held off a charging Cornell as the Big Green defeated the Big Red, 3-1 on Friday in Leede Arena. The win improves Dartmouth to 14-9, 7-6 Ivy, while Cornell moved to 8-16 overall and 5-8 against the Ancient Eight. The win is the Big Green's first over the Big Red since a 3-0 victory on Nov. 13, 1999.

Dartmouth opened the match with a 30-25 win. Neither side could get the momentum going early on but it was the Big Green who capitalized late, going up by as much as seven enroute to the win. Cornell came back to win the second game 34-32. Dartmouth had the lead 28-24 and then 29-26 but the Big Red fought back off back-to-back kills by Emily Borman and a service ace by Kathryn Woodbury. Finally a kill and an attacking error would give Cornell the two-point lead it needed for the win. The Big Green again took a one game lead winning the third, 30-19, and sealed the win with a close 32-30 victory in game four. The fourth game was much like the first three, back and forth. Dartmouth had a six-point lead at 18-12 but had several errors to allow the Big Red to close the gap and tie the game at 21. With Cornell up, 27-24, Dartmouth took a timeout and then won the next three points to force the tie. Then a kill by Megan MacGregor (Carlsbad, Calif.) followed by a service ace would give the Big Green the win.

"I am so happy to get this win," said head coach Ann Marie Larese. "We worked hard and it was nice to get this win for the team. It's been awhile for us for say we beat Cornell."

Four Dartmouth players were in double-figure kills as MacGregor led with 17. Frances Samolowicz (St. Charles, Ill.) had 14, Sandy Barbut (Los Angeles, Calif.) 12, Jess Thomas (Tampa, Fla.) 11 and Morgan Covington (Katy, Texas) added 10. Katie Hirsch (Austin, Texas) recorded a game-high 58 assists as the senior was one of five Dartmouth players to have at least one service ace. Amanda Marston (Austin, Texas) had her fifth 30-dig game with a game-high 32 as Thomas notched 23 for her 15th double-double of the season. Barbut and MacGregor also had double-doubles with 17 and 13, respectively.

Samolowicz led her team with a .519 hitting percentage. MacGregor and Barbut both had over .300 percentages as the Big Green outhit the Big Red, .272 to .174. Darmouth also outblocked Cornell, 11 to five. The Big Red is one of the top blocking teams in the Ivy League.

Dartmouth will close out its season tomorrow at 4:00 pm in a matchup with Columbia. The game will be a chance for the Big Green to say goodbye to three seniors who will be playing in their last match.