Dartmouth Volleyball Drops Match to UNH

Tuesday, September 25

Durham, NH

7:00 p.m.

Dartmouth College

UNH

9/25/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

DURHAM, N.H. - The Dartmouth (8-3) women's volleyball team dropped a midweek match to the University of New Hampshire (11-4) on Tuesday. The loss ended a four-game win streak for the Big Green as Dartmouth won the first game of the match, 30-27 but dropped the next three, 27-30, 20-30, 21-30.

In the first game neither team was able to gain much of an advantage as the two played point for point until UNH scored six straight. The Big Green took over the lead again at 16-15 as the Wildcats took a timeout. Six more points by the home team after the break gave UNH a 21-16 advantage before Jess Thomas (Tampa, Fla.) and Katie Hirsch (Austin, Texas) served or helped their team tie the game at 23. The Big Green pulled ahead for good on a kill by Thomas and a Wildcat hitting error as Megan MacGregor (Carlsbad, Calif.) slammed the final point home for a Dartmouth win.

The second game started much like the first as the lead went back and forth. UNH finally got an advantage taking a 15-10 lead before a Big Green timeout. The Wildcats pushed its lead to 20-13 before two UNH attacking errors and a kill by Thomas put Dartmouth down by three at 22-19. The Big Green got within one at 23-24 after Hirsh and MacGregor combined for three points. The Wildcats took another five-point lead before Thomas, Sandy Barbut (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Kelsey Johnson (Carlsbad, Calif.) each had a kill that saw Dartmouth down by just one at 27-28. But a home team kill and service ace gave New Hampshire the victory to tie the match at one game apiece.

The third and fourth games were all UNH as the Big Green was unable to continue the momentum of the first two games as the Wildcats took the match.

"Our serve receive passing broke down in the second game," said head coach Ann Marie Larese. "UNH is a very big team and when our service game wasn't there it put unadded pressure on our defense. Hopefully it's a wake up call to the team that they can't play sloppy, especially on the road. I look for us to play better this weekend in our home opener."

Thomas led her team with a double-double with 16 kills and 15 digs while Morgan Covington (Katy, Texas) had 11 kills and Barbut added 10. Hirsch also notched a double-double with 35 assists and 17 digs. Amanda Marston was tops for her team with 20 digs

The Big Green is back in action on Friday when it plays its first home match of the season against Ivy opponent Harvard at 7:00 p.m.