Dartmouth Volleyball Named Co-Champs of Sacred Heart Tourney

Saturday, September 4

Fairfield, Conn.

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Binghamton

Dartmouth Volleyball Named Co-Champs of Sacred Heart Tourney

9/4/2010 7:54:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

By: Dartmouth

Binghamton Boxscore
Lehigh Boxscore

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – After going 3-0, the Dartmouth women's volleyball team was named the co-champions at the Sacred Heart Invitational. The Big Green defeated Binghamton, 3-1 (25-29, 24-26, 25-22, 25-15) and Lehigh, 3-1 (18-25, 25-21, 25-22, 25-18) on Saturday afternoon.

Thanks to their stellar play, three Dartmouth players were named to the All-Tournament team. Kendall Houston (Austin, Texas) was a co-MVP while Madeline Baird (Austin, Texas) and Amber Bryant (Libertyville, Ill.) joined her.

Houston recorded a triple-double with 10 kills, 39 assists and 10 digs. Baird added 14 kills and digs while Villanueva also had 14 kills. Bryant and Jessie Hartman (Woodside, Calif.) each had 15 digs.

In the opening match Dartmouth took the early lead and was up by three several times. Binghamton tied the set at 9-9 but Hartman helped the Big Green rattle off four straight as Dartmouth never relinquished the lead and took the opening set. In the next set it was the Bearcats that took the early lead but the two sides traded points for the better part of the first half. Binghamton finally grabbed the lead and never looked back, tying the match up. The Big Green used the loss in the second set and came out fighting in the third. Hartman, Villanueva and Kelsey Johnson (Carlsbad, Calif.) helped Dartmouth to an early lead. The Bearcats eventually tied it up but the Big Green proved too tough, cruising to the go-ahead win. In the final set, Dartmouth went up by as much as six as the Big Green was not to be denied, taking the match win over Binghamton.

In the first set of the second match, Lehigh took the early lead and cruised to an opening victory. The Mountain Hawks looked like they were going to win the second set easily as well as Lehigh went up by as much as five before three points by Villanueva and two errors on the Hawks helped the Big Green to pull ahead. The two sides traded points for the next few sideouts before Dartmouth took the lead and never looked back, tying the match. In the third set it was again Lehigh that took the early lead as the Big Green again had to play catchup. Baird helped her team come back from a six-point deficit but Dartmouth never seemed to get closer then two. But thanks to four points by Vivian Snider (Colorado Springs, Colo.) the Big Green finally took the lead and the go-ahead set. The fourth and final set was much closer then the previous three as neither team seemed to have an early advantage. Six straight points by Baird gave Dartmouth the lead and the Big Green cruised to the victory.

Baird and Villanueva had 14 and 13 kills, respectively. Houston was agin the top setter wth 39 while Bryant had a game-high 23 digs. Baird and Snider chipped in 11 and 10 digs.

The Big Green will be back in action next weekend traveling to the Quinnipiac Invitational. Dartmouth will take on Hartford on the first day before squaring off with St. Peter's and Quinnipiac on the second day.