Women's Volleyball Wins Five-Set Thriller at Harvard, 3-2

Saturday, September 24

Cambridge, Mass.

5:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Harvard

Women's Volleyball Wins Five-Set Thriller at Harvard, 3-2

9/24/2011 5:43:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

By: Dartmouth

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — The Dartmouth women's volleyball team played its first Ivy match on Saturday at Harvard and earned a 3-2 victory in a back-and-forth five-set match. The win improved the Big Green to 9-3 overall and 1-0 in the conference. The Crimson dropped to 7-4 overall and 0-1 in league play.

The contest came down to the final set after the two teams split the first four. Dartmouth and Harvard stayed close in the fifth, but the Big Green never trailed in the deciding set. Dartmouth didn't take control of the set until midway through the action. With the Big Green leading, 7-6, the team won three straight points on a kill from senior Annie Villanueva (Santa Barbara, Calif.), a bad set by the Crimson's Beth Kinsella and a kill by senior Madeline Baird (Austin, Texas) to take a 10-6 lead. From there, Dartmouth was able to hang on to win the fifth, 15-10.

The Big Green received offensive production from both ends of the experience spectrum with freshman Alex Schoenberger (Corte Madera, Calif.) totaling 21 kills in the contest and Baird recording a match-high 22 kills. The 21 kills by Schoenberger marked a new season high, and she also had seven digs and five total blocks. Baird added 16 digs for her eighth consecutive double-double.

Dartmouth won the first set, 25-22, which saw both teams make substantial runs. The Big Green took a big lead early, 16-8, but the Crimson came all the way back to take a 20-19 lead. Dartmouth secured the set by winning six of the last eight points. In the second, Harvard started on an 8-3 run. The Crimson withstood a late charge by the Big Green to win the second, 25-23.

In the third, it looked like Harvard was going to win the set to take a 2-1 lead in the match. The Crimson held a five-point lead, 17-12, late in the set, but Baird and Schoenberger, with six kills combined from that point forward, helped the Big Green win the third, 26-24. The momentum did not carry over for the fourth with Harvard winning easily, 25-15.

Senior Amber Bryant led Dartmouth with 26 digs. Junior Alissa Santa Maria (Yorba Linda, Calif.) and senior Kendall Houston (Austin, Texas) split the setting duty with Santa Maria recording 24 assists and Houston totaling 25.

The win gave the Big Green a five-match winning streak, dating back to Sept. 13 at Holy Cross. The victory also marked the fifth straight win over the Crimson by Dartmouth.

Dartmouth goes back on the road next weekend when it travels to Penn on Friday, Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. and at Princeton on Saturday, Oct. 1 at 4 p.m.