Volleyball Breaks Through in 3-2 Win Over Cornell

Saturday, October 30

Ithaca, N.Y.

5:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Cornell

Volleyball Breaks Through in 3-2 Win Over Cornell

10/30/2010 8:01:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

By: Dartmouth

ITHACA, N.Y. – For the first time in 22 days, the Dartmouth women's volleyball team can celebrate a victory. The Big Green had to come from behind, but defeated Cornell on Saturday, 3-2. It ended a six-match losing streak, and improved the squad to 13-8 overall, 4-6 in the conference. The loss dropped Cornell to 4-16 overall and 2-8 in Ivy League play.

It wasn't easy for Dartmouth. The match went the full five sets, and the Big Green fought off a match point in the fifth set. The team won by the slimmest of margins with each of its set victories coming by just two points.

In the first, Dartmouth held the lead for a majority of the set, but the Big Red came back late. Cornell gained its second lead of the set at 23-22, and then won two of the last three points to close it out, 25-23. The second saw Dartmouth make a run late to win the set. With the Big Red leading 23-20, the Big Green scored three straight on two attack errors by Cornell and an ace by junior Amber Bryant (Libertyville, Ill.). The Big Red called a timeout, but Dartmouth won, 25-23, after a kill by Elisa Scudder (Ashburn, Va.) and a Cornell attack error.

The Big Red took care of business in the third set. Cornell never let Dartmouth into the set, winning, 25-18. The fourth set was a back-and-forth battle between the two teams. With the score tied at 23, each team scored a point on a kill by Annie Villanueva (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and a kill by Cornell's Madeline Przybyl. On the next point, the Big Red committed a ball handling error to give Dartmouth set point. Sophomore Lexi Campbell (Solano Beach, Calif.) made the most of the opportunity with an ace to win the set, 26-24.

There was not much separation in the fifth set with neither team holding a lead larger than two. The game was tied at 14 when the Big Green committed an attack error to give Cornell match point. Campbell again stepped up to the challenge, and recorded a kill to tie the score. She followed that kill with another, but the Big Red tied the contest at 16 on a kill by Erin McCarthy. Junior Madeline Baird (Austin, Texas) tallied a kill to give Dartmouth match point, and Cornell made an attack error to end the set, match and the Big Green's six-match losing streak.

The offense was spread around for the Big Green with five players recording double-digit kills. Baird led the team with 21 kills and 20 digs. Campbell had a career-high 16 kills, senior Kelsey Johnson (Carlsbad, Calif.) tallied 12 and Villanueva recorded 10. The defense was spread around too with five players with double-digit digs. Besides Baird, Johnson had 22, Bryant racked up 25, Campbell recorded 14 and Alissa Santa Maria (Yorba Linda, Calif.) tallied 15.

The last Big Green win was on October 8 at home against Cornell, which also was a five-set match. Dartmouth next plays at Yale on Friday, November 5, at 7 p.m.