The Dartmouth Women's Volleyball Team Splits on Last Day of Army Invitational

Friday, September 19

West Point, N.Y.

11:00 AM

Dartmouth College

Univ. of Southern California

The Dartmouth Women's Volleyball Team Splits on Last Day of Army Invitational

9/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

By: Dartmouth

USC Boxscore
Hartford Boxscore

WEST POINT, N.Y. - The Dartmouth (3-5) women's volleyball team split on the last day of the Army Invitational with a three-game win over Hartford and a loss to the fourth-ranked USC Trojans. In the first match of the day USC (8-2) was victorious in three games, 25-18, 25-16 and 25-12 before the Big Green bounced back with a win over Hartford (3-10). Game scores for that were 25-22, 25-15 and 25-16. Freshman Madeline Baird (Austin, Texas) was named All-Tournament.

The Big Green took a quick 3-1 lead in the first game but the Trojans came right back to go up by two. Two errors on USC and a kill by Kendall Houston (Houston, Texas) allowed Dartmouth to tie the game and take the lead. Four straight points by the Trojans gave them an 11-6 lead before a Big Green timeout was called. After the break kills by Colleen Mita (Wayne, Pa.) and Baird coupled with a USC error had Dartmouth down by just two, 12-10. After two USC points Megan MacGregor (Carlsbad, Calif.) added another for the Green but the Trojans began to pull away enroute to a 25-18 win.

The second game was again point-for-point early on wit USC taking a slight, 6-4 lead. The Big Green never seemed to be able to get closer than two points before the Trojans went up by four, forcing Dartmouth to use a timeout. USC built it's lead to six after the timeout. The Big Green was able to get a few points but the Trojans ran away with the game, 25-16.

In Game Three USC jumped out on top very early, taking a 10-4 lead. Dartmouth was able to close the lead slightly thanks to kills by Baird and Morgan Covington (Katy, Texas) but USC proved to be too tough as they closed out the match with a 25-12 victory.

Baird led the team in hitting with 11 kills while MacGregor added nine. Amber Bryant (Libertyville, Ill.) was tops in digs with 11.

"To play the No. 4 team in the country was huge for us," said head coach Ann Marie Larese. "I felt we really played with them and hung in there. They were forced to keep their starters in the whole game. I also think we're doing a better job of minimizing our mistakes and getting better with each match."

Against Hartford in the second match of the day, the Hawks jumped out to a quick 10-3 lead before kills by Baird and several Hartford errors allowed Dartmouth to get back in the game at 11-8. The Big Green took the lead with four straight points as Baird was serving. A Hartford setting error followed by MacGregor kills allowed Dartmouth to go ahead 16-14. The Hawks soared back, scoring the next three to tie the game at 17. Covington and a couple Hartford errors allowed the Big Green to again go up by three as the Hawks burned a timeout. Coming out of the break Dartmouth increased its lead to three and then five before the Big Green was able to close out the contest with the 25-22 win.

Dartmouth was victorious in Game Two as well, taking an early lead and never looking back as the Big Green handled the Hawks, 25-15.

It was all Dartmouth in the final game as the Big Green won it's third game of the season with a 25-16 defeat of Hartford.

For the match the Big Green hit .298 as a team as the offense worked really well with 39 kills in the three games. Baird was again tops for her team with 14 kills and a .464 hitting percentage. Natalia Wrobel (La Jolla, Calif.) was the Big Green's top setter with 18 while Bryant had 13 digs. Dartmouth outblocked Hartford 10-6.

"We were able to dig the ball which made things playable," Larese said. "Senior Jess Thomas (Tampa, Fla.) was back after suffering an injury in preseason. We had her on the back row and it was great to have her in the lineup. I felt we had a good tournament. We need to get a win under our belt prior to our own tournament next weekend."

The Big Green will be back in action on Friday and Saturday hosting the Dartmouth Invitational. On Friday the Big Green will meet up with Ivy rival Harvard at 7:00 before taking on St. Francis (1:00) and Bryant (5:00) on Saturday.