Larese Notches 200th Career Victory with Win Over Rutgers

Saturday, September 18

Durham, N.H.

10:00 AM

Dartmouth College

Rutgers

Larese Notches 200th Career Victory with Win Over Rutgers

9/18/2010 6:00:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

By: Dartmouth

Rutgers Boxscore
Sacred Heart Boxscore

DURHAM. N.H. – On the second day of the Holly Young Invitational hosted by UNH, the Dartmouth (8-2) women's volleyball team defeated Rutgers (6-6), 3-0 (25-20, 27-25, 25-20), which marked the 200th career victory for Big Green head coach Ann Marie Larese.

The team dropped its second match of the day to Sacred Heart (9-4), 3-1 (21-25, 25-19, 20-25, 13-25). Annie Villanueva (Santa Barbara, Calif.) earned her second All-Tournament Team award of the season.

The first set against Rutgers saw Dartmouth jump out to an 18-11 lead, but the Scarlet Knights responded narrowing that lead to 19-17 behind strong serving. It wasn't enough, however as the Big Green was able to rally and take the set 25-20.

The Scarlet Knights came out strong at the start of the second taking an early 4-1 lead but Dartmouth responded knotting the match at 10-10. From there, the teams played back and forth volleyball until the Big Green took a three point lead at 23-20 forcing RU to call a timeout. Following the short break, Rutgers rallied to even the score at 24-all. However, the Scarlet Knights couldn't keep the momentum and dropped the second set 27-25.

The Big Green carried the momentum gained from winning the second set into the third jumping on the Scarlet Knights early en route to a 19-11 lead. RU tried to fight back but the deficit proved too large to overcome as Dartmouth took the game, 25-20, to close out the match.

Madeline Baird (Austin, Texas) had a double-double with a game-high 17 kills and 14 digs. Alissa Santa Maria (Yorba Linda, Calif.) was the top setter for the Big Green with 37 while Amber Bryant (Libertyville, Ill.) tallied a game-high 18 digs.

Larease is in her 17th season with the Big Green with her first season coming in 1994, the same year Dartmouth became a fully-funded varsity sport. She has built the team from a newcoming to a squad that competes in the Ivy League every year and twice finished as the conference's runner-up.

In the second match of the day, Sacred Heart was able to overcome a stellar hitting performance by Dartmouth as the Big Green hit .323 in the opening frame along with 18 kills. Courtney Kidd-Kadlubek supplied 15 of her 62 total assists in the set as the Pioneers came from behind to take a 25-21 victory.

Dartmouth continued to hit well in the second set as it posted a .444 mark en route to a 25-19 victory that leveled the match at 1-1. Villanueva put away four kills in her five opportunities of the set for the Big Green while Kelsey Johnson (Carlsbad, Calif.) used one of her nine kills of the match to give Dartmouth a game point that set up a Pioneer error on the next play.

Both sides put on a hitting clinic in the third set as SHU swung at a .348 clip with the Big Green right behind at .343. The Pioneers pulled out to a 21-17 lead on the strength of its hitting. A hard kill by Sacred Heart ended the match as they took a 2-1 advantage.

SHU came out on fire in the fourth set with as they belted 19 kills with just one error for a .562 hitting percentage. Ashlyn Trimble went a perfect 5-for-5 in the contest as the Sacred Heart defense also stuffed three blocks en route to holding Dartmouth to a .065 swinging clip in the final frame.

Baird recorded another double-double for the Big Green with 16 kills and 11 digs while Villanueva had 10 kills and eight blocks.

Dartmouth will open up at home on Friday, Sept. 24 with an Ivy League matchup against Harvard at 7 p.m. followed by a non-conference tilt with Providence on Sunday, Sept. 28 at home.