Dartmouth Women's Volleyball Opens Season with Win over Rhode Island

Friday, September 4

Providence, R.I.

4:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Rhode Island

Dartmouth Women's Volleyball Opens Season with Win over Rhode Island

9/4/2009 8:30:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

KINGSTON, R.I. - The Dartmouth women's volleyball team opened the 2009 season with a 3-2 victory over the University of Rhode Island. The Big Green were victorious, 20-25, 26-24, 25-17, 18-25, 15-12.

Krista Merchat was tops on both squads with 13 kills and four solo blocks as the sophomore led two teammates, Madeline Baird (Austin, Texas) and Megan MacGregor (Carlsbad, Calif.) who also had double-figure kills with 12 and 11, respectively. Kendall Houston (Austin, Texas) was the top setter with 35 as Amber Bryant (Libertyville, Ill.) led Dartmouth in digs with 13 and Baird recorded a double-double with 11.

Co-captain Morgan Covington (Katy, Texas) was spectacular for the Big Green as the senior recorded a .727 hitting percentage (8 kills, 0 errors). Covington's hitting percentage is third-highest in school history.

"This was a total team effort," said head coach Ann Marie Larese. "I was very proud of the senior leadership of our co-captains, Covington and MacGregor. Morgan was spectacular and as a team to have 12 service aces with just seven errors shows how hard we were attacking."

The first set had the Big Green battling back from an eight-point deficit midway through. Houston recorded four straight points to close out the set but it wasn't enough as the Rams won the first one, 25-20.

The home team came out in the second set and again took a quick lead. Three service aces by Merchat helped Dartmouth take a lead at 23-22 and hold on for the 26-24 win.

The third set was all the Big Green as Dartmouth led by as much as eight, 17-9 before coming away with a 25-17 victory. But URI did not go away quietly as the Rams rebounded 25-18 in the fourth set.

The fifth and final set was close through out until MacGregor had two big kills late in the game to help the Big Green to a 15-12 victory.

Dartmouth will open up its home schedule on Tuesday, Sept. 8 against Quinnipiac with a 7:00 pm match.