Dartmouth Women's Volleyball Opens Season with a Win

Boxscore

WORCESTER, Mass. - Behind a great team effort in hitting and blocking the Dartmouth women's volleyball team opened the 2008 season with a 3-0 victory over Holy Cross on Monday. The Big Green won 25-13, 25-21 and 25-20. As a team Dartmouth hit .204 while holding the Crusaders to a .000 hitting percentage. The Big Green tallied 11 total blocks in the win.

Morgan Covington (Katy, Texas) and newcomer Krista Merchat (Carlsbad, Calif.) led Dartmouth with seven kills apiece, while freshman Amber Bryant (Libertyville, Ill.) was tops with 14 digs. Sophomore Natalia Wrobel (La Jolla, Calif.) handed out 15 assists and added two service aces to her effort.

"I was very pleased with our effort in our first game of the season," said head coach Ann Marie Larese. "We hung in there and kept our lead throughout the match. Our middles played well and we were able to really have different looks with our defense."

In the first game Wrobel wracked up nine straight points before the Crusaders called a timeout. Another Wrobel point gave Dartmouth an 11-1 lead. Classmate Madeline Baird (Austin, Texas) helped her team to a 17-8 lead before killing the final point for a 25-13 victory.

Holy Cross kept it closer in the second game as the home team didn't allow the Big Green to take more than a two-point lead early on. Behind six points by Baird, Dartmouth increased the lead and never looked back enroute to a 25-21 win.

The third and final game was close early on but kills by Covington, Merchat and Baird late in the game propelled the Big Green to a 25-20 victory.

Dartmouth continues on the road traveling to Harvard for the 12th Harvard Invitational Sept. 12-13. The Big Green opens the home portion of its schedule on Sept. 16 with a 7:00 pm match against UNH.

Schedules